Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain [Paperback]

Stefan Mumaw (Author), Wendy Lee Oldfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2006

What do you do if you are lagging in the morning?

You probably grab a cup of coffee for that extra boost of energy. Throughout the day, you are asked to be creative, to come up with new and better ideas. So what do you do when you need a creative jolt for your brain? Now you can turn to Caffeine for the Creative Mind.

This collection of short, focused creative exercises is just the boost you need get your brain working. Inside, you'll find:

• Over 250 brain-stretching exercises. The exercises are brief, fun and are meant to evoke creative, thought-provoking responses. Get your brain moving by engaging in an exercise at the start of your day or stop and do one whenever you need a creative jolt.
• "I Tried It" testimonials. From illustrators to photographers to professors, real people give feedback on specific exercises they've tried. They also offer more suggestions for how the exercises can be used, changed or reworked to become even more useful.
• Interviews with prominent creative people. See how the people who are in charge of building and maintaining creative environments - studio heads, designers, shop owners, illustrators and animators - view the importance of creativity in their everyday lives.

The only thing keeping you from reaching a new level of creative thought is inaction. With this stimulating book, you'll learn how to focus your creative attention in short, definable ways. Caffeine for the Creative Mind is your springboard for coming up with solutions that challenge you to alter your perspective - and begin generating ideas at the highest possible level!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stefan Mumaw a Creative Director and Partner for the advertising agency The Brainyard and is the author of Simple Websites and Redesigning Websites.

Wendy Lee Oldfield works at an advertising agency.

Product Details

• Paperback: 359 pages
• Publisher: How (October 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581808674
• ISBN-13: 978-1581808674
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Creative, but lacking in substance, April 7, 2008

By 

A. Redman (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain (Paperback)

This book read more like a long marketing piece about how awesome the book is. Littered with quotes from people who obviously found previous editions useful, it just gets in the way of what I think it was built to do - excite and energise creative thought.

Some exersices are useful, some are good fun, but a lot are rather plain and boring. If you have no imagination at all, this book may be a useful kick-start to any brain storming or creative session. I would suggest that it might be useful for school teachers too - as some of the ideas leverage a lot of imagination which kids would be great at.

On the good side, the typographic treatment of the content is exciting and inspiring, each page has something new to look at and read, if nothing else it's a nice example of how unconventinal type treatment can enhance an otherwise bland book.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Geared toward designers, but great for ANY creative mind!, April 22, 2007

By 

Jill M. Paulson "jillmarie7276" (Yankton, SD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain (Paperback)

It is certainly what it says! I started tabbing all the exercises that I especially wanted to try right away. Well, let's just say the book looks like it's growing some very colorful hair with all tabs sticking out of it! A lot of them that struck me initially seemed to be photography challenges, but I guess that makes sense since that is one of the things I'm really hoping to improve on this year.

It addition to the exercises, they also have numerous short interviews with some leading designers across a spectrum of website, logo, promotions, illustration, animation, etc. In these, I found numerous ideas and concepts to ponder, some of which I will be sharing with you here in the coming weeks.

Although this book is certainly not specifically geared towards scrapbookers, I think any serious 'creative' would find great value in this book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Copywriters and the Designers are Happy, June 14, 2007

By 

Heather Grimstead (McLean, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain (Paperback)

Some of the creative exercise books out there are kind of....well, lame. This one isn't. It's got its share of silliness, but the exercises in this book really get the right-brain working. For most, you don't need anything more than pen, paper, and imagination. A handful of the exercises call for items that you can find around the house or office.

Although they aren't necessarily designed with a team in mind, it's easy to adapt the exercises for a group. Plus, the range of exercises makes the copywriters and the designers happy. My group, a corporate creative team, frequently pulls from this book for our weekly creative stretch. Everyone usually has a good laugh at the end results.