The Bright Idea Deck: Breakthrough To Brilliance [Box set] [Paperback]

Mark McElroy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 8, 2005

Experiencing writer's block? Stumped for a solution to a personal problem? Lacking inspiration for an upcoming project? The Bright Idea Deck is the perfect tool for supercharging the brainstorming process and getting the creative juices flowing. Designed to generate ideas, expand creative expression, and stimulate thought processes, this brainstorming companion is ideal for the workplace or home.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

After purchasing his first Tarot deck in 1973, Mark McElroy began terrorizing other neighborhood nine-year-olds with dire and dramatic predictions.Today, he calls Tarot "the ultimate visual brainstorming tool," and shares techniques designed to help others ask better questions, see more options, and achieve their goals.

He is the author of Putting the Tarot to Work, Taking the Tarot to Heart, What's in the Cards for You?, and the new I Ching for Beginners (all Llewellyn). He is also the author of The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Tarot (Que).

Mark holds a B.A. and M.A. in creative writing and composition from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has more than two decades of experience as a public speaker and corporate trainer. He has written, produced, and hosted classroom, video, and online training for some of America's biggest companies, including SkyTel, MCI, Office Depot, Staples, and many others. Today, he works as a writer, voice actor, and creativity consultant; samples of his work are available at www.hiremark.com and www.tarottools.com.

Mark lives and writes in Mississippi, where he shares a home with his partner, Clyde, and two cats, Tiger and Lilly.

Eric Hotz (Canada) has been working as a full-time illustrator since 1984, specializing in Old World illustration styles.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Welcome to The Bright Idea Deck, a powerful idea processor and brainstorming tool disguised as a deck of cards. With this deck you can solve problems faster, generate new ideas more easily, and think outside the box more effectively than ever before.

In planning sessions, executives, managers, and corporate employees can use this deck to outline ideas, pinpoint issues, identify assumptions, and run risk-free "what if" scenarios. Writers can use this deck to map out storylines, gain insight into characters and their motivations, generate plot twists, and shatter writer's block. Marketing departments and advertising agencies can use this deck to boost creativity, make intriguing associations, and prompt ideas for taglines and jingles. Corporate trainers and other presenters can use this deck as the basis for intriguing icebreakers, attention-getting games, and memory aids. Anyone can use this deck to inspire new ideas, explore options, solve personal problems, weigh the pros and cons of a situation, and build thoughtful and effective action plans.In short, because The Bright Idea Deck makes it easier and faster to generate new ideas and answers, you can be more confident, creative, effective, and objective than ever before.

What is The Bright Idea Deck?

The Bright Idea Deck consists of seventy-eight illustrated cards. Each card amounts to a visual encyclopedia of related ideas, which suggest hundreds of possible strategies, perspectives, motivations, methods, and answers. Each card can represent or suggest:

an approach to problem solving; an action to be taken; a person (or type of person); a moment or situation from everyday life; information about an issue or situation; a factor that influences, creates, perpetuates, or could resolve your situation.The illustrations on the cards incorporate a rich and consistent symbolism, making it possible to discover (or create) intricate relationships between any two cards in the deck. As a result, the cards you draw all seem to be about your situation, and all of them seem to relate to each other as well. (In fact, the deck's ability to reflect, analyze, and comment on your situation can seem downright spooky at times!)

Features of The Bright Idea Deck

If The Bright Idea Deck contained nothing but pictures, it would be a powerful brainstorming and creativity tool. (Marketing teams and advertising agencies often employ similar collections of easily randomized images as creativity fuel for brainstorming sessions.) In addition to the pictures, however, the deck incorporates several other features that greatly enhance the effectiveness of the cards.

Structure

The deck contains two major kinds of cards: trump cards and suit cards.

Trump Cards: Trump cards, identified by their purple border, carry more weight than other cards. When working with The Bright Idea Deck, these cards represent methods, motivations, and influences that deserve special attention.

Let's say you ask the question, "What are the two biggest factors influencing my situation?" To guide your brainstorming, you draw two cards, one of which is a trump. In this case, the trump would represent the more influential of the two factors. Suit Cards. The other fifty-six cards in the deck are divided into four suits: red, blue, yellow, and green. These cards help you see questions and situations from four unique perspectives:

Red cards concern actions, desires, goals, and intentions-the things you want, and the things you do (or don't do) in order to make them happen. Blue cards concern emotions, feelings, perceptions, intuitions, reactions, and prejudices-what you feel and why you feel it. Yellow cards concern decision making, logic, mathematics, strategies, responses, judgment, and reasoning-what you think and why you think it. Green cards concern material resources, the five senses, physical objects, and the environment-anything you can see, feel, hear, touch, or smell in the world around youDrawing a majority of blue cards during a brainstorming session prompts participants to focus on how emotions create, complicate, or perpetuate a situation. A mixture of yellow, green, and blue might suggest an exploration of how decisions (yellow) made strictly to save money (green) could impact the feelings (blue) of the people involved.

These four suits provide unique perspectives-the four dimensions of your situation. By assuming a four-dimensional approach to solving problems, you expand your perspective and improve your chances of success.

Numbering

Trump cards are numbered from zero to twenty-one. Suit cards are numbered from one to ten. Numbering the cards makes all kinds of associations possible.

You could assign weights to the cards and pay more attention to those with higher numbers. For example, you might decide the influence represented by the Blue 8 is greater than the influence represented by the Yellow 3. You might arrange or organize the cards according to their number values. For example, you might choose to see the cards as steps in a process, and decide that Green 2, Yellow 5, and Red 8 represent three sequential steps in that process. If the Yellow 5, Red 5, and Blue 5 all turn up in a brainstorming spread, you might consider what themes these fives have in common.

The numbers on the cards aren't random! Within each suit, the progression of numbers from one to ten also tells a story: the story of the ten stages we all go through when confronting something new.

The ten stages are as follows:

1. Opportunity. The opportunity presents itself.

2. Duality. We debate how to deal with the opportunity.

3. Productivity. We take some initial action (or refuse...(Continues)

Product Details

• Paperback: 202 pages
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications; Pap/Crds edition (March 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738705950
• ISBN-13: 978-0738705958
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #618,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ten Fun Facts about Me

- I sing in a deep, rich bass voice.

- My first paying job was a position as a disc jockey at WDNG in Anniston, AL. I was called "The Madman," and I earned minimum wage to man the weekend graveyard shift.

- I hate "high fives."

- My first paid writing gig? A script for a comic book called "Planet X."

- My first Tarot deck? The Rider-Waite in the bright yellow box.

- I once worked as a tour guide ... in a funeral home.

- My favorite food is thin-crust pepperoni pizza. I could eat it for every meal, every day, without a problem.

- My two favorite cities in the world are Bangkok, Thailand and Sydney, Australia. My favorite city to live in is Atlanta, GA.

- My religion is best described as "electic Christian mystic."

- Fourteen years into the relationship, I'm still head over heels in love with my partner.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Most Underestimated and Under-Exposed Decks Out There, February 21, 2005

By 

Janet Boyer "Author, Blogger, Mystic" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bright Idea Deck: Breakthrough To Brilliance (Paperback)

Feeling chained to your desk? Boxed in by the demands of your current project? Trapped in a maze of predictable plot lines? Stymied by interpersonal conflict? With the Bright Idea Deck, you can deal yourself an idea, solution, or new perspective!

Creativity consultant, Tarot teacher and author Mark McElroy has created an ingenious, practical, and portable brainstorming tool: a powerful idea processor disguised as a deck of cards. This box set includes the deck, companion book, and white cardboard box for deck storage. Tarot enthusiasts will recognize the astrological symbols peppered throughout the cards, while Qabalists will easily identify the meanings of Hebrew letters portrayed in the cards. (For example, Cheth, the letter associated with The Chariot, means "fence"--and this card shows a Segway busting through a nice white picket!)

The Bright Idea Deck features 78 colorful cards illustrated by Eric Hotz which provide multiple perspectives for any situation including:

*Writer's block
*Brainstorming sessions
*Personal problems
*Sales, marketing, and advertising ideas
*Conflict resolution
*Pinpointing issues, motivations, assumptions, and overlooked factors
*Generating questions, options, and solutions
*Weighing pros and cons
*Building effective plans

In fact, you can even use the The Bright Idea Deck for ice breakers, attention-getting games, memory aids, and date or dinner ideas! You're only limited by your imagination. (And should that happen, this deck can help you break out of your creative rut!)

Many ad agencies and marketing teams use randomized images for brainstorming sessions. If this deck contained only pictures, it would be powerful enough. However, these cards incorporate other features that greatly enhance the effectiveness of the deck.

The Deck

Trumps The trumps are 22 cards identified by their purple border. These cards represent methods, motivations, and influences that deserve special attention.

Suit Cards The other 56 cards are divided into four suits: red, blue, yellow, and green.

Red cards address actions, desires, goals and intentions. This suit is a version of the traditional Fire/Wands suit in Tarot.

Blue cards address emotions, feelings, perceptions, intuitions, reactions, and prejudices. This suit is a version of the traditional Water/Cups suit in Tarot.

Yellow cards address decision making, logic, mathematics, strategies, responses, judgment, and reasoning. This suit is a version of the traditional Air/Swords suit in Tarot.

Green cards address material resources, the five senses, physical objects, and the environment. This suit is a version of the traditional Earth/Coins suit in Tarot.

Each of the numbers on the suit cards represents ten different stages, adding an extra dimension of meaning. In addition to number cards, each suit contains four special approach cards: Learning (traditionally Pages), Doing (traditionally Knights), Feeling (traditionally Queens), and Controlling (traditionally Kings).

For all cards, a helpful keyword is printed on the bottom. Also included are two extra cards: one lists the meaning of numbers 1-10, and the other shows the suit associations and meanings (including the Trumps).

The Companion Book

The 202 page companion book provides a wealth of information for getting the most out of your deck, including:

*Getting started
*Creating spreads
*Example spreads
*Interpreting meanings (including storytelling, decoding, listing and associating)
*Instant interviews
*Speed reading

There's even a section on "What Would The Trumps Do?" where one can brainstorm with the Trumps, asking each what they'd do in a particular situation. The author even provides a "cheat sheet" for this exercise-with 5 ideas for each of the 22 Trumps!

For each of the 78 cards, there are helpful instructions such as:

*Associations (what each cards encourages and cautions against)
*Exploration (a set of 5 questions intended to promote exploration)
*Commentary (comments by the author)

McElroy encourages you to discard any methods that confuses or displeases you.

If that's not enough, the end of the book outlines 50 different things you can do with the cards!

When I first got this deck, I had fun decorating the white box that comes with the kit: Using old magazines, I cut out letters of varying color, size, and font and glued them on one side to spell "Bright Ideas". You could adorn the box as you see fit, or choose to store them in a silk cloth or bag.

The Bright Idea Deck - Breakthrough To Brilliance Kit can be used for quick and simple idea generation, as well as for constructing plans, approaches, and projects of an elaborate nature. Whether you want to use the deck for party games, instant inspiration, or for serious insight, this deck will meet your needs. I am excited to see such an innovative, versatile product on the market, because it can truly be used by anyone. And, if you're a professional Tarot reader, there are no scary or potentially offensive cards in this deck (such as nudity) so the Bright Idea Deck could be used for more conservative clients and even for children.

I feel that this set of cards is one of the most underestimated, unappreciated, and under-exposed decks on the market. It can function as both a brainstorming tool AND an immensely readable, incredible accurate Tarot deck. The companion book to the Bright Idea Deck is truly a goldmine, because the author prods deck users to find their own answers while providing familiar images that invite contemplation, speculation, and inspiration. This would be a fantastic deck for journaling and self discovery, as well.

(To see 10 images from this deck, visit the Reviews--Decks section at JanetBoyer.com)

Janet Boyer, author of The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present (coming Fall 2008 from Hampton Roads Publishing)

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelously Useful!, May 3, 2005

By 

Bruce H. Rogers "author of Word Work" (Eugene, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bright Idea Deck: Breakthrough To Brilliance (Paperback)

I have to produce short stories regularly --- three stories every month for a paying audience. I'm always eager to find tools that I can call upon if, at the last minute, my deadline is tomorrow and I don't yet have a story idea.

I also teach creative writing to graduate students, professional writers and advanced amateurs. I like to give students no-excuses tools that they can use to get back on track when they are feeling stuck, blocked, or creatively numb.

The Bright Idea Deck has already been a wonderfully flexible tool for my own writing. I have used it to help me think about my novel in progress. I used it yesterday and today to plot a story from scratch, a story that just went out to my subscribers. (For a detailed description of the cards I used and how I used them, see my May 3rd 2005 process journal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/bruce_h_r/).

In the past, I have adapted divination systems like the Tarot or the I Ching for brainstorming. One problem with using a Tarot deck or the I Ching is that it takes some time and experience to learn enough of the symbols to make creative use of them. The Bright Idea Deck, on the other hand, is immediately accessible. Pick a problem. Pick a card. Ask how the card might relate to the problem. Immediately you can start making connections because the objects in the illustration are modern, familiar, and loaded with associational meanings.

I like this deck so much that I am planning on taking it with me when I teach my writing seminars in Greece and Italy. I'm going to assign it as a brainstorming resource for my MFA writing students. I have even proposed a panel at the next conference of the Associated Writing Programs to talk about the deck and other brainstorming aids like it that really work for writers.

The deck won't do your thinking for you. Developing a good idea for fiction still takes time and effort. But the deck is a great starting point if you don't have an idea, and it's an effective aid to developing an idea you already have. I have never seen a creativity product that I liked as much as this one. I hope it stays in print forever!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Contemporary and Clever, January 19, 2006

By 

rachelcat "tarotist" (University Park, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bright Idea Deck: Breakthrough To Brilliance (Paperback)

This is a tarot deck and book set that nowhere mentions the word tarot (except in the "About the Author" note inside the front cover). It instead describes itself as an "idea processor and brainstorming tool" suitable for business and personal use. Nonetheless, it is a true tarot, with 22 Trumps (with purple borders) and four suits, named Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green. The courts are renamed Learning, Doing, Feeling, and Controlling. The cards have keywords/titles (mostly compatible with Golden Dawn/Rider-Waite-Smith meanings), and the suit cards are scenic.

The illustrations are very contemporary. Many characters are depicted in business suits, and the Chariot (titled "Advancement") is a Segway! I quite like the illustration style--bright, defined, and, yes, business-like. Also, many of the characters are gender-ambiguous, which is good for wider interpretations.

My main impression of this set is clever, clever, clever. The trumps each have a design element that refers to the Hebrew letter associated with that card (GD attributions: Fool = Aleph). Advancement shows the Segway and rider crashing through a white picket fence. The Hebrew letter for Chariot is cheth, which means fence. Examination (Judgment) shows teeth, from the viewpoint of inside the mouth looking out (!), being examined by a dentist. The letter for Judgment is shin, tooth. Also, the book often manages to work the traditional card title and/or imagery into the Commentary section for each card. Even though the card depicts someone standing in a boat wearing an "iron mask," the Commentary for Perspective says, "His future hangs in the balance, swinging to and fro like a traitor from a tree." Card also have their astrological signs and/or planet symbols hidden somewhere in the illustration.

I thoroughly enjoy these clever elements, as I think all tarot lovers will, but I wonder how someone coming to this deck as a business tool will feel when they discover its esoteric/magical background. Will they be intrigued enough to find out more about tarot, or feel tricked into using something that is a cover for an unacceptable method or premise?

The book is well written and thought-provoking. It has several spreads, "brainstorming" (reading) examples, and "Fifty Things to do with the Bright Idea Deck." I love the "What Would the Trumps Do?" section, which gives a list of five people who exemplify each trump. For Experience (Hermit), it lists "someone with unlimited time; an expert in this field; a wise old man; a loner; a do-it-yourself specialist." For each card the book gives Associations (what the card "encourages" and "cautions against"), Exploration (brainstorming questions about the image and concept), and Commentary (a paragraph-or-two expansion on the concept of the card).

It would be interesting to compare this deck with Gay Tarot and Pagan Tarot, two other decks with contemporary illustrations (featuring sideways baseball caps and desktop computers).

I recommend this deck if you like bold contemporary illustrations and/or a new take on the Golden Dawn tradition. And especially if you like your tarot clever!