Carolyn Eckert’s name may not be familiar to booksellers, but the images and designs she’s created have illuminated thousands of bookstore shelves. She’s been the art director/designer on hundreds of books, including Adam Danforth’s 2015 James Beard Award–winning Butchering Poultry, Rabbit, Lamb, Goat, and Pork. On May 17, her own book, Your Idea Starts Here: 77 Mind-Expanding Ways to Unleash Your Creativity—both written and designed by Eckert—will be published by Storey.
“The book started out to be for artists and designers,” says Eckert, “but it’s really for anyone who wants inspiration.” In it, she offers 77 specific questions, techniques, and exercises—combined with infographics and other visuals—designed to jump-start creative thinking. Don’t know what you want your project to be? Make a list of things you don’t want it to be. Don’t know where to start? Say one word that relates to your idea and invite a friend to say another word that relates to yours. The book evolved from her work with two young book designers, who were “smart and creative, but they also craved specifics about how to move their ideas forward.” In order to help them, Eckert began writing lists of ideas she wanted to share with them on Post-its. Those lists became the basis for Your Idea Starts Here.
The book is filled with visuals because she “wanted it to be fun and unexpected. People understand more easily if they can be shown rather than told. While 77 options might sound daunting, Eckert promises “you can dive in at any point.” Over 100 pieces of art are used as examples to illustrate an idea, help readers get unstuck, or achieve a more creative result. Artists talk about their process alongside their artwork, and the book’s contributors range from a scientist at MIT and a photographer in England to a collage artist in France and a Peruvian cartoonist. For writers, there are literary references that can be used to jump-start anything from a short story to a novel.
“I wish someone had shared all their secrets with me when I was younger, so I’m delighted to be able to share mine.”
Today Eckert signs finished copies of Your Idea Starts Here, 1–1:30 p.m., at Table 4, in the Autographing Area, and in the Workman/Storey booth (1829), at 2 p.m.
This article appeared in the May 13, 2016 edition of PW BEA Show Daily.
