A Reflection on Ideating 

By: Rachel Clements, Senior Art Director

I think it’s Tuesday still. There’s a slew of dogeared Communication Arts books laid open on the floor around a bag of Tostitos and a tub of Publix buffalo chicken dip. Doc (a stuffed animal giraffe from the Brevard Zoo) looks at us gleefully as he hangs around a white life raft in the corner of my office – an area that over time has turned into the “Souvenirs from Shoots” corner. I envy the version of us that will have an idea strong enough to create a video shoot. But that is not us right now.  

It’s just me and my writing partner, Meg. The back door of the building slams and at first we’re startled but then the familiar relief sets in – it’s just the cleaning crew. It’s already 8:32pm. Shit. 

A YouTube search for “30-Minute Meditative Sound Bath” indicates we’re desperate to cope with having reached the worst part. Even though we know it’s not true, we’ve entered the inevitable “all our ideas suck and we suck and this is impossible” stage of the ideation process which made its arrival a couple hours ago and lingers over our heads like a soggy cloud.  

After watching what seems like every travel-tourism commercial ever made we make our way to our personal lists. All creatives have a mental list of broadcast spots that make them mad. Not mad because they use a forbidden typeface or bad VO. Mad because we didn’t come up with it ourselves and the sheer brilliance boils our blood. And because we already feel terrible about ourselves, we rage-watch those videos too. 

But this is all part of the process. This strangely masochistic process of creating. 

I can visualize the presentation days away. The research and strategy in the upfront of the deck, the creative mockups, even the client nods along the way. I can picture the shoot, the 12-hour days in the Florida heat, the perpetual dehydration, the sweat. I can taste the smoothies from Surfinista and wings from 4^th Street Fillin station, my favorite spots on the Space Coast that I’ve grown to deeply know and love. I even know that I’ll be wearing a different bucket hat each day of the shoot because I’ve force-fed it to be part of my personal Art Director uniform. But what’s the goddamn idea?! 

“I’m so tired. I can’t wait for it to come to us.” 

It’s like the boosters are suddenly ignited. Hold on. Can’t wait. Like the can’t-wait-for-my-vacation feeling before a trip. Maybe that’s something? 

Meg searches “The Science of Anticipation.” 

Neuroscientific studies have shown that dopamine, often called the “pleasure chemical,” actually peaks during anticipation rather than consumption. When we’re looking forward to something, our brain releases more dopamine than when we’re experiencing it. This evolutionary mechanism helped our ancestors stay motivated during long hunts and gathering expeditions. 

OH. Okay this is something. When I’m excited for a trip I immediately look at the year-view on the calendar app and visualize the countdown to my long-awaited break. OH. A countdown…  

Somewhere not far to the east “We have lift-off!” is declared and a rocket disappears into an indigo sky. 

The story has a very happy ending. Read on at our Space Coast Office of Tourism Countdown Campaign case study.