10 (More!) Bright Ideas That Never Saw the Light of Day
Eric Junker scales buildings and create cool stuff at the same time. Image courtesy of Junker.
When we started asking our interview subjects about their best ideas that never saw the light of day — as part of our “How I Work” series — we expected to hear the discarded bits, the off-the-wall and really lackluster ideas. But a funny thing happened along the way: Our subjects shared truly brilliant ideas. Like ideas we actually want to see come to life.
Adam Moss, author, painter, and former New York Magazine editor, literally dreams up story headlines in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, chef Anaïs Ca Dao van Manen wants to create toilet paper that can fully disintegrate in the water to solve for Vietnam’s water blockage problem. And Sarah Moffat, global chief creative officer at Turner Duckworth, is working on the B-There 3000™, a device that will allow her to join her London team for a pint at the pub, enjoy a martini at Little Owl with the New York crew, and still be home in time for a negroni as the sun sets over the Golden Gate Bridge. (Yes, you guessed it, she thought of this one at the pub.)
Read on for the full list — and mark our words that at least one of these will realize its brilliant potential one day.
1. Eric Junker’s Ensemble Comedy TV Series
For years I’ve had an idea for an ensemble comedy TV series based on my first post-college job: working as a graphic designer at an alternative weekly newspaper in Santa Barbara in the mid-1980s. Every week a bunch of laid-back West Coast beach town hippies and carpet-bagging New York East Village intellectuals attempted to work together to put together a local newspaper. It was absurd. The collision of colorful personalities, the late nights, the drugs and sex. The 1980s soundtrack would be epic. Anyone remember the “personal” ads? For those who weren’t there, they were a printed pre-internet version of Tinder or Grindr that could be found discreetly in the back pages of many local weekly newspapers.
—Eric Junker, Muralist and Lecturer at USC Roski School of Design
2. Mira Evnine’s Membership-Based Working Farm
A membership-based farm — think SoHo House but make it a working farm. There’d be a place to gather, participate in farm processes, socialize, learn. It’d be part classroom, part community supported agriculture, part social club, part cafe, part farm stay.
3. Laura Stein’s Lego Shrine
I’ve been thinking about a way to recycle Lego sets in a way that’s fun and community-building. I’ve also been thinking about designing a recycled Lego set packaging system. Lego, if you want to talk, I’m here!
—Laura Stein, Chief Creative Officer, Bruce Mau Design
4. Meena Yi’s Personalized Valentine’s Day Cards
I have simple personal projects/ideas I’ve always wanted to do. One is to make personalized Valentine’s Day cards for the people I love in my life (maybe 2024 will be the year I do this).
—Meena Yi, Creative Director at the White House
5. Adam Moss’s Headlines
Typically why I sleep so badly (other than an aging bladder) is that I dream what feels like a great idea, and pop awake so that I don’t forget. I write it down and try to get myself back to sleep, which doesn't always succeed. I developed this habit when I was in the business of writing headlines; I dreamed headlines. Invariably, however, what I found in the morning (idea or headline) was/is dreck.
—Adam Moss, Author, Painter, and Editor
6. Scott Wickstrom’s Mom Starter Kit
Shortly after my wife gave birth to our daughter, we became sort of frustrated-obsessed with the Finnish starter kit for new moms and the Nordic parenting model overall.
So we started a company (Toast Slice…you can still find remnants of it on the web in places) devoted initially to high-design products for infants through early education. These included things like flash cards, bamboo toys, and modern coloring books.
But we wanted to work with the U.S. healthcare system to evolve Toast Slice to develop a new mom’s starter kit like the Finnish model. We told ourselves after a few years we were making great progress, but in hindsight of course that was never going to see the light of day. We still have the fire in our bellies, though…
7. Sarah Moffatt’s Friend’s B-There 3000™
It’s a little something that my friend Brit dreamed up. The B-There 3000™, it’s part time machine, part rapid transportation device. It will allow me to join the London team for a pint down the pub, enjoy a martini at Little Owl with the New York crew, and still be home in time for a negroni as the sun sets over the Golden Gate Bridge. And yes, before you ask, this is highly creative work. Some of my best ideas happen at the pub, in fact, I think that’s where the B-There 3000™ was conceived.
—Sarah Moffat, Global Chief Creative Officer, Turner Duckworth
8. Sanjay Suchak’s Photojournalistic Stories
Suchak's photo of Stevie Wonder & Dave Matthews.
I’ve had a bunch of ideas for personal photojournalistic stories that, due to a lack of time or another reason, haven’t come to light. I still hold out hope that I’ll do them some day, but the fact that I consider them some of my best ideas reinforces that personal work is the most important work that you can do. Every creative person should try to make time for that. I think as you get more successful in your career you lose that time. This is my reminder to try and make that a priority.
—Sanjay Suchak, Tour Photographer
9. Ande Campbell’s Green Gas Station Idea
In my early career, lots and lots of logos! In my current mindset, I have a long list — if anyone needs a business idea hit me up! I’m always problem solving and trying to design better solutions in my head for the things around me. Like going to the gas station — why do we have so many individual plastic jugs for window washer fluid? Why can’t each gas station have a large container that gets filled up where you pay to siphon from, just like you do for air for your tires? It would save so much plastic production.
—Ande Campbell, Creative Director, Planned Parenthood
10. Anaïs Ca Dao van Manen’s Spicy Soda
I would have to ask my husband, as apparently I come up with ideas every one hour. It can be from starting a factory producing toilet paper that can fully disintegrate in the water for Vietnam (lots of toilet blockage here), to a Vietnamese restaurant chain, to a soda drink influenced by Vietnamese spices and citrus. Anyway, ask me again in a few months — I might have some more bright ideas to share.
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