Super Genius

Sometimes, staring down a sheet of paper determined to forestall my best attempts at defacing its eburnine immaculateness, I need a creative exercise. When I come across a new one, I'll post it here, hopefully for the collective benefit.

Good ideas seem simple to catch; they peer at you with glossy eyes from the lofty perch of award annuals, cawing in derision at the ease with which you believe you could be the artificer of its perfection.

In a way, they're a lot like the Roadrunner. You believe there are hundreds of fool-proof ways to catch it, yet each only renders you more foolish than the last. You're a Genius. It even says so on your card!



So, what I propose is this. When you need a quick break, design a Roadrunner trap using whatever it is you're supposed to be generating creative for, be it an Acme Pen or Acme Doctors Without Borders. Just try to use the main features or benefits.

Decide how the trap works. Then, of course, you have to decide how the trap will fail and how the Roadrunner will go bolting past, or leave you holding up a comically-undersized umbrella in a vain attempt to deflect whatever fate you've set in store for yourself.

This isn't a good example, but this is how I'd do it. When I do it for real, I'll keep it and scan it if it's any good. (Though I would leap at the chance to advertise land mines)