15 Bright Ideas that Never Saw the Light of Day
Jeffrey Ibañez dreams to create a self-sustaining housing system. Image c/o Ibañez.
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.
Kevin Robinson, Founder, Jun¡per Jones, says he “sorta kinda” invented NFTs before there was such a thing. (“Sounds like bullsh*t, I know,” he acknowledges.) Cathie Urushibata, Creative Director, Shake Shack, wants to bring the burger brand’s neon signature to life in the form of a neon art show. And Drew Dzwonkowski, Sports Illustrated Kids Art Director, has a sure-thing pitch for a Hollywood movie called Armashreddin’. (Think Armageddon, but on surfboards.)
Read one for the full list — and mark our words that at least one of these will realize its brilliant potential one day.
1. Jason Kreher’s Protein Snacks
My old partner Matt Sorrell and I had a campaign marketed specifically for stepdads. If you own a snack food that features protein, please contact us and we will straight up give it to you for free.
–Jason Kreher, Chief Creative Officer, Accenture Song
2. Cathie Urushibata’s Neon Art Show
No pun intended, but I’ve always wanted to do a neon art show for Shake Shack. Each of our restaurants showcases some type of neon, either a green burger icon or our mission statement, “Stand For Something Good”. It’s a nod to the classic road burger stand and part of our branding. I would love to collaborate with various neon artists to do an art show.
–Cathie Urushibata, Creative Director, Shake Shack
3. Jaime Lopez’s $40,000 Ideas
My wife and I have a running list of “$40k ideas.” Things that seem world-changing for the first six hours and then fall somewhere between un-funded shark tank pitch and patent infringement.
–Jaime Lopez, Chief Design and Marketing Officer, Flatiron Health
4. Chí-An Benjamin De Leo Revives His Father’s Furniture Collection
This idea has seen some light, but shining more light on it here might push me to complete the project. So I’m shamelessly plugging it here. A few months before my father Giulio’s passing, he gave me an archive of his original furniture designs and drawings. I sought to revive the designs by adding my own sensibility and playing with materials, joinery, and finishing techniques. I wanted to bring new life to my father’s work.
I completed one piece, a table originally designed for wood. You can find it here or on our Rice store website. I experimented with reproducing the table in steel and glass. The challenge was joining glass to steel without using any extra materials while keeping the design true to its original form. I engineered a method to join the two materials using only the base materials and gravity. Now, it’s time to bring the rest of the collection to life.
–Chí-An Benjamin De Leo, Founder & CEO, Rice Studios
5. Skip Wilson’s Alaskan Homestead
In college, I read a story about this township in Alaska that was giving away land for free — all you had to do was get there. I was going to school in Nashville, Tennessee at the time and I reached out to my friends saying, “We’ve got to get to Alaska! This town is going to be the Cabo of 2025!” We never ended up going because we were poor college kids, but I still think to have that land there would have been a smart investment.
–Skip Wilson, VP, Brand Marketing, Shutterstock
6. Dhiya Choudary’s Black Money Auction
In 2016, the Government of India demonetized all the ₹500 and ₹1,000 banknotes in the interest of curbing black money and issued new ones instead. I was in NYC at the time and happened to have about 10 of the demonetized notes on me (now worthless because I missed the deadline to turn them in). My idea was to collaborate with a bunch of artists on an art experiment called ‘The Black Money Auction’ — I would send each artist one of the banknotes and have them write or draw on it, and we would auction off the notes to see what the worthless notes would be valued at with the art on them. It never came into existence unfortunately.
–Dhiya Choudary, Creative Director, Magic Spoon
7. Gemma O’Brien Makes Accounting Easy
“Weapons of Tax Deduction.”
8. Steve Gorski’s BMW-Inspired Appareal
When I worked on BMW, I really wanted to partner with Adidas Originals to make apparel inspired by BMW Art Cars. Hardly the “brightest” idea, but I keep an empty hanger in my closet as tribute.
–Steve Gorski, Head of Strategy, Forsman & Bodenfors NY
9. Drew Dzwonkowski’s Surefire Hit Film
I just posted the world’s cleanest pitch for a Hollywood blockbuster, similar to Armageddon or The Meg. The tagline is “A tidal wave is coming to wipe out planet Earth… and he’s going to ride it.” The title: Armashreddin’. Just absolutely shredding through the apocalypse. I don’t know the process to getting a big Hollywood surfing movie made but this idea is money on the table.
–Drew Dzwonkowski, Sports Illustrated Kids, Art Director
10. Katherine Lee Turns Music Lyrics to GIFs
You’re gonna think this is rich because I’m one of those people who’s a bit deaf to lyrics. I might listen to a song a million times and not pick up on the main refrain. But still! For the lyrics that I do in fact hear, I’ve always wanted to have a function in my messaging apps that would allow me to quote a little clip of a song, almost like the way people use GIFs. Imagine that you’ve just emerged from spending the last 12 hours binging Succession with your bestie. You could send them an iconic Whitney Houston line, “The Lord asked me what I did with my life, and I saiiiiid, ‘I spent it with you.’” Or maybe you could gently remind your buddy (the one you never pays you back) to pay you by sending them a clip of Rihanna’s “B*tch Better Have My Money.” If it weren’t such an IP minefield, I’d love to have this be in my life.
–Katherine Lee, Executive Strategy Director, Athletics
11. sTo Len’s Sound Playground
A jungle gym made out of recycled materials that is a playable sonic instrument. Think of monkey bars that are huge guitar strings which make sound as you hang from them and bend notes with your weight. Play as a unified sound. What would this unwitting orchestra sound like? By the way, if anyone out there wants to fund this, I am ready!
12. Richard Turley’s Cool Branding that Should Have Been
I've been pretty lucky that most of what I do has found a home. But if I had to think...I guess…it would be the Koko branding I did before getting elbow’d off that project. They ended up using the basis of the work I did, but the idea I had was way cooler AND USED COMIC SANS. I get why I got shunted, but what they ended up with was pretty gutless and tepid in my humble (and not at all bitter lol) opinion.
–Richard Turley, Founder, FOOD creative agency
13. Kevin Robinson Kinda Invented NFTs
Well, I sorta kinda invented NFTs before there was such a thing. Sounds like bullsh*t, I know. I worked on the idea with Funko, a vinyl collectibles company. Pitched it as AR digital collectibles verified on the block chain via smart ledgers (sounds smart at least). Flew to sign a multi-million dollar deal with them…the day the CMO was fired. Ouch.
–Kevin Robinson, Founder, Jun¡per Jones
14. Ben Bloom’s Laundromat Photograph Series
I have so many photo projects written down that I just haven’t gotten around to. I like to think someday I’ll do them, but time is a tricky thing. I’ve always wanted to shoot a series of dry cleaners in San Francisco. I’ve watched that city change dramatically over the last 20 years, but the dry cleaners and laundromats have such an iconic, untouched look to them. They’re filled with character and haven’t moved even as the city shifts.
–Ben Bloom, Creative Director, Landscape
15. Jeffrey Ibañez’s Self-Sustaining Housing System
I developed a self-sustaining, deconstructed communal housing system with a great focus on well-being. The facilities like entertainment, relaxation, sports, etc., are the center of the development. However, I would not say that it will not see the light of day. It might be just waiting for the right time.
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