Top ECD duo creates the Deck of Brilliance with idea generation tools for creative professionals

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Deck of Brilliance.jpgTwo of Asia’s most awarded creative directors have released a website aimed at providing guidance, training tools and inspiration to ad industry creatives. The ‘Deck of Brilliance’ is the brainchild of Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai ECD, Juggi Ramakrishnan, and Commonwealth// McCann Regional Chief Creative Officer, Todd McCracken.

The duo came up with the idea as colleagues and friends working over their long careers Asia.

‘Deck of Brilliance’ is a completely free online resource comprising 52 idea-generation tools. These tools are aimed at creative professionals in the ad industry. And each comes with instructions and world-class examples. “Glorify and Celebrate”, “Dramatize the Problem”, “Make the Product Precious”, “Make the Familiar Unfamiliar” and “Crash Someone Else’s Party” are just 5 of the 52 cards in the Deck of Brilliance.

“It’s a personal project we’ve been putting together over the last 20 years,” said Ramakrishnan. “I’ve had this in my laptop since my Saatchi days. And Todd’s been tooling around with a similar thing since god knows when. The idea for this project came from our observation that there are currently no comprehensive training tools for creative people, nothing at all to help them crack briefs in a systematic way.”

Ramakrishnan told Campaign Brief that both he and McCracken have worked in many developing countries and almost every day, they see creatives, young and old, who find themselves stuck in a rut, churning out formulaic stuff that’s well within their comfort zones.

Deck of Brilliance_2.jpg“Anyway, our dream was to launch a set of tools that would stretch their limits, increase the quality and quantity of their ideas and boost their confidence. We also thought it would be nice to give back to an industry that has given us so much. So we’re basically giving away all our trade secrets for free,” Ramakrishnan explained.

“It’s only been live for just over a week and it’s going nuts,” said McCracken. “We are getting great feedback and it’s taken off far quicker than we ever imagined. We’re just trying to give something useful back to help creatives and planners. We’re amazed creatives needed it as much as we do.”