The Valence Levels of Creativity

I took the above picture from the magazine - Entrepreneur. Well, if you haven't ever read it, do read some back issues...I quite liked the selection of business stories and articles...

Coming back to the picture. A middle class mom(in the US) had this brilliant idea of a seat bag for her son...It's a normal cloth bag with two partitions where the kids can keep their books, pencil box and other stationery!

It's such an obvious stuff. Yet nobody had ever thought of this. First her friends, then the school, then some other schools in the neighbourhood started asking for the seat bag. This enterprising woman then decided to patent the seat bag...And in the process built a million dollar business around the seat bag!!

I have often thought and I guess have discussed on this blog about the valence levels of creativity...Often as we get immersed in the small 60cc ad or the 30sec TVC, we get so self-obsessed with our clever copy that we feel there is little creativity beyond our narrow silo. Well, maybe we can't compare creativity in communication/ media with creativity elsewhere...But then again, it's all part of one creative game!

What about attempting the valence levels of creativity. I discussed this with Bianca and asked her to put all things creative in concentric circles. The most creative at the core and the least at the periphery!(Actually the reverse of electron valence levels, where the electrons that lose energy fall nearer to the core!) Lets see what she comes up with...

Am creating my own valence set! And surely the seat bag will be near the core ahead of loads of advertising including e-Serve and Big FM:-)