I had to write these down so I could throw down ideas fast. I jotted ideas down in increments. When I would think of one thing, immediately the idea would be followed by 3 or more. I also had some help through collaboration means for generating ideas. Some of the randomness produced ideas that I would never really use, but throwing every first thing that came to mind does help because by the end of the 50 list I did have at least 4-5 possible beginnings to some promising ideas.
Tag Archives: ideas
Sharp Idea 34: Don’t Suck
For the people who have the drive to be creative, a blank piece of paper is one of the most intimidating things to see. When I gaze upon just a blank piece of paper I can’t deny the feeling that I should be doing something marvelous, creative, beautiful with this fresh sparkling sheet. Of course it is moments like this where I feel there is nothing worthy of creating and so pitifully the paper remains blank while it haunts me and makes me feel guilty for letting it go to waste. It sounds crazy but I am sure I am not the only one who feels the intensity and weight of one white paper. The blanked pages are even worse that the lined ones. With the lines you feel more of a need to write letters but on a blank page it could be anything. What is the furthest your mind can travel? Can you bring it all back together on just one page? Do you have the confidence to even try?
The intimidation of a blank page and the unheard expectations of what to do with such raw and primitive stages of creativity is what inspired me to come up with this illustration of how sharpie helps to overcome this “idea intimidation.” With a pen or pencil you can erase or subtly scribble out such minuscule lines. But with a sharpie you can boldly tackle this canvas and generate the confidence to run with whatever idea ignites your enthusiasm; there is no going back. 
What will you do?
Sharp Idea 15 Be Remarkable
Voting sheet. Incentives possibly including free permanent markers from the list.
Here’s an idea that could work or could be a fail and is scary to actually execute because even if it is done right it still might not work.
So like this is a project type ad to test the preference of Sharpie over competing brands. Much like a research project would be carried out, this idea, if hypothesized correctly, would prove the supremacy of the brand Sharpie. In a populated area like New York a team would set up a station in a mall or similarly populated area. Handing out a short paper, they would ask the individuals check the brand they most prefer. Next to the brand name there would be a picture of the permanent marker that company sells. The volunteer would select one. To eliminate bias only black markers would be judged along with an attempt to exact the scale of the size of the marker. If the process ends up working in Sharpies favor, then they have gained a new statistic to use as a selling point as the number one brand customers are confident in selecting. However, this is a scary and rather risky endeavor. We must trust that the people have known the sharpie brand long enough and are confident in trusting it in order for this to work. If the results did not work in sharpies favor then the entire thing could be a fail.
In the sense it works out, Sharpie has the ability to gain bandwagoning consumers that would’ve otherwise been more difficult to convince without the numerical figures. It’s risky, but quite possibly worthy.
Sharp Idea 12: Be Remarkable
Symbol of interpretation
This idea goes beyond my actual abilities to illustrate even remotely close to what I am thinking but I will try to explain. So on days like today, snow hits and piles up only to be washed away by the rain and warmer temperatures. So I thought of an unoriginal way to incorporate sharpie. That is what if it was raining sharpies. Boring right? Also when a sharpie falls and hits you on the head it could hurt because, well its a large falling object.
So lets try again. Sharpies are falling like rain hitting the snow. Lets take away the obvious fact that if a sharpie fell it would hurt or smack the ground. I say have sharpies fall like water. When they hit the ground the grey of the rain and snow clear up and color to the world is added.
What happens when a sharpie falls and hits a person? Well it disintegrates and sparks fly from impact. Their faces immediately colored and from there the idea is that they were hit with inspiration. Something I am sure many people wish would just knock them on the head, like the sharpies hit these people. Well, the idea is that sharpies generate these ideas and give those with ideas the confidence to pursue them.
So back to the illustration, however this idea of sharpie was to be conveyed (a video, or picture, or whatever) the individuals sparked by sharpie would go about creating their ideas. The snow becomes white as paper and the people, now filled with ideas they are bursting to let out, the tips of their fingers glow with every color they would need. The people throw the ideas off their finger tips and onto the paper white snow. This event causes those who have grown numb to creativity, like ones sitting inside doing mindless work not hit by the sharpie rain, they would go out into the rain. Little did one individual know that they had the next greatest idea inside them the entire time and it took a sharpie in the head to release this idea and spark inspiration.
I decided to take a risk with this idea and try and turn it into something remarkable. However, some people might interpret this strangely, and maybe it is strange. But no idea, I don’t think, is not worth conveying. Regardless of what others might think of it. Lose your inhibitions, make an old idea crazy, take a risk.
Sharp Idea 3 From The List
People make some big decisions in their life. Many of these decisions have lasting effects. A big decision that sharpie helped me decide was on whether or not I should get a tattoo. These permanent pieces of artwork are forever. For those who don’t want to end up with something they might regret, test run it. Sharpie’s ability to stay on your skin can be more useful than just an X on your hand that is impossible to remove months after a concert, a problem I’ve had frequently (when under 21).
From personal experience, there was a stage in my life where I thought I really wanted a tattoo. So before I made that decision that will last forever, I hand drew a picture of what I wanted on my foot (because that’s where I thought I would get the tattoo). It stayed there for 3-4 days before fully disappearing. Afterwards I decided I wasn’t ready for that design to stay with me forever.
Sharpie really helped me make up my mind and see that I wasn’t ready to commit to a permanent mark on my body. Here is the a pic of me testing out my tattoo idea.
Be confident before making big decisions. Use a sharpie.
Sharp Idea 2 From The List
Of course I am not planning on using all of the ideas that I flushed out from my last post. However, some of them I think are worth exploring further. I found using stories that people already have made a connection with and then incorporating my own meaning into that story creates, what I feel is, entertaining and meaningful work.
In this idea I drew the connection from sharpie to the an old well-known fairytale.
Everyone knows the story about the princess and the frog. The frog is actually a prince and needs a princess to kiss him so that the frog can become a human prince again. Between the princess and the frog there is a kind of trust since the princess even believes the frog. To be more specific the princess must have been confident and brave to even want to see and find out if this frog will actually become a prince once she kisses it. Sharpie is used to highlight this aspect of her.
I wanted to recreate this story to emphasize and generate the trust and confidence already associated with story, and then tie all of that into my theme; sharpie. Here is a sketch of my idea.
To the best of my abilities I brought this idea to life using Photoshop. However, I am sure this sketch could be greatly improved from cartoon to maybe a realistic looking frog prince or adding the courageous princess who responded yes to be in the picture. Possibly a better perspective on the angle that this more in depth, rather than flat, could also improve my sketch.
The picture is meant to represent the frog communicating to the princess by writing in sharpie on the prominent piece of paper at the bottom. He asks her to kiss him and she agrees. The magical background is to infer that he could be in the process of transformation back to a prince. However, in this brief moment captured by the picture she has replied trustingly and with confidence to his request.
Cite picture location
-http://1hdwallpapers.com/wallpapers/lilies_pond.jpg
-http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/RcG/9aE/RcG9aE4cL.png
-https://sharpiewhit.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/sharpie-fine-pt.gif
-http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gdXCARiePKg/Tb3jDf8sFpI/AAAAAAAAAX0/be1RHDgTuyU/s1600/KissaFrog.png
Sharp Idea 1 Fifty Ideas for the Future
Flushing out 50 ideas for project 54 – SHARPIE “APLOMB”
- Taking a math test in sharpie
- Pre-tattoos (before you get an actual tattoo, write it in sharpie and test run it)
- Hungergame scene, the people who disguise themselves run to the cornucopia and grab a fistful of sharpies then run off. Flash-forward to them blending in perfectly somewhere and winning the games. “Sharpie, there when you need it.”
- Recreating a picture of a sharpie while playing with Photoshop – record to transformation
- Samples of effective ways to dye hair (box dye, chalk, spray, sharpie, kool-aid)
- Sharpie super hero (Mr. Fix It) ex. It can be used to color over marks on black shoes and furniture scuffs
- Proposal sign/prom sign hand drawn and decorated in permanent marker
- A star on the red carpet is approached by a fan who asks for a signature, notices sharpie, signs
- Fan in the crowd has the only noticeable sign, colorful and written in sharpie
- Athlete gets nervous for competition receives a note, in sharpie, of positivity from mom and lose his/her fear
- Walking into a new class, student with no friends sits alone. Another student accompanies him/her, and during class, one forgets his/her pen for notes and the other lets him/her borrow his sharpie
- Group protest/supporters/club working on making matching tee shirts for an upcoming event – decorating white tees in sharpie
- Scene in a significant office(presidential?), signing paper work with sharpie, everyone claps (power of the pen)
- The Great Organizer. Show a worker who is on time and everything is organized with sharpie labels
- Man draws a door into a white world where he creates with a sharpie, imaginary wonderland world of creativity and awe
- World of creativity, brave, strength shown – all activities blend and colors separate to and are sucked into a sharpie pen
- Sharpie pen creates a need for its user (man at altar draws the ring for his fiancée, other important objects)
- Squirrel finds sharpie pen is able to use the sharpie as a tool to dig burrows, knock down acorns, fight off predators, etc (power of pen)
- Scrawny man walks into gym, draws on six pack and muscles
- Mythological book of fate/destiny has pages of stony and written in sharpie (set in stone)
- Aspiring singer uses sharpie as a microphone
- Doctors use sharpie to draw out surgical marks
- Aliens discover sharpie from space and use it to draw own maps and pictures of the universe (out of this world uses) later becomes the deity of that alien race
- Frog prince writes out “kiss me I’m actually a prince” and the girl reads and writes ok – turns back into a prince after a kiss
- Girl writes her number on a guys hand in regular pen, it starts to smear later on so he quickly touches it up with sharpie
- Two sharpies having date – the pens come to life
- Jousting with sharpies – wounds are sharpie marks (game) (what not to do but could with a sharpie series)
- Two markers are going for a swim (paper animation) – regular markers bleed, sharpie shark comes up (doesn’t bleed cause permanent
- Solo cups with names on them, regular pen cup condensates and name runs off, sharpie named cup stays strong
- Astronaut writing letter to home in a sharpie pen (futuristic setting)
- Businessmen sitting at a table all signing a document, all pull out fancy expensive pens with plain black ink. One man pulls out a sharpie and clicks it to sign his name in colorful bold. He smiles, as he is the last one to sign.
- All the ways you could use sharpie but shouldn’t (Permanent eye makeup, nail polish, magic wand)
- Skydiver jumps out of plane, falling and getting close to ground. Pulls out sharpie and clicks it as he is close to the ground, when the sharpie clicks the parachute deploys.
- Person goes around with sharpie turning trash things into art with a sharpie
- Peter Pan at the top of what seems to be a pirate ship. He jumps with sharpie in hand and drags it down the pirates sail. As he hits the ground he shouts in approval as if he has won, then the camera pans out to see his line he drew creating a masterpiece of artwork on the sail of the ship.
- Man standing in front of a whiteboard, you can hear his inner thoughts… “Third year in a row I’ve forgotten our anniversary… Not this year…” Clicks sharpie and writes anniversary date on whiteboard. Gives smile of approval
- Group interview, people sitting in room. Interviewer takes one last look around the room for something that makes every member unique, seen nothing to spectacular until he sees the final perspective employee sitting with a bright purple sharpie in his hand, crisp and new sharpie pen. *Ding*
- Girl with petition walking around with three types of markers, one being a sharpie, everyone picks the sharpie to sign.
- Kid sitting in bed before school. He gets a red sharpie and puts red dots on his face “I cant go to school mom, I have the chicken pock” Switch to scene, he’s standing in his school with red dots on his face as he stands with his friends laughing about how he tried to get out of school.
- Elementary school student making a science fair project, she is decorating her poster with a sharpie; she ends up winning with her sharpie board marker.
- Kid doing school project; he decides to test which pen lasts longest. They take some pens, one being sharpie, into the school art room. Finds the spools of paper used for large projects and draws straight lines on the spools of paper until there is a winner. End commercial with the sharpie writing contract saying winner and pan out to see the paper EVERYWHERE
- “The best things in life are made by you” Pan out to see little girl wearing prom dress that she drew on herself with sharpie marker that ended up beautiful
- Teachers and sharpie (grading, writing editing)
- Dark at night having a get together of people. Someone takes a sharpie and runs into the street and tosses it into the air. It flies up and explodes like a firework in bold colors.
- Lady in the city decor everything with recycled materials and marks it to decorate with sharpie, reuses sharpie to make new things (roof top garden)
- Man walks in NYC wearing sharpies as clothes and people admire as he struts and uses sharpie to decorate or enlighten people’s day
- Sharpies left out in public and camera follows the peoples lives who picks up the sharpie,
- Miss universe sharpie, sharpie in a beauty pageant either alive as a contestant or as la completion where contesters draw with sharpie
- New business owner maps out success with sharpie, college student using sharpie, success stories and sharpie
- Young artist starts off with sharpie. Works way up to world class artist always uses sharpie throughout
Curiousness 