The very first thing I seen in Los Angeles was the horizon.
The panorama was vast.
A large expanse of mountains.
A large sprawl of metropolis.
A large stretch of ocean.
All of this “vast” crammed me with a way of chance.
This was again within the 90’s when there was nothing however open marsh land in Playa del Rey. And nothing to impede the view save for a pale blue airplane hangar the place Howard Hughes constructed his literal large concept — the Spruce Goose.
To the North, rose the Santa Monica Mountains.
West, the Pacific Ocean.
To the East, the San Gabriel’s, East LA and someplace very far off within the distance New York.
That’s the place I got here from. I left New York as a result of it was too vertical. I couldn’t see the horizon.
I used to be low man on the totem pole in my profession. There was all the time a man on prime of a man on prime of a man. (And in these days, yeah, it was all the time a man.)
There was no method up. So I opted for a method out. To LA. It was remodeling, to say the least.
Los Angeles and its broad vistas taught me the ability of “Horizontal Pondering.” The ability to have a look at issues in panorama kind.
Horizontal Pondering is about pondering large and vast. Seeing far into the space. There’s a way of optimism and chance. And a capability to make surprising connections.
I’ve been again in New York for a while now and “vertical pondering” is creeping in once more.
But it surely’s not from the town. It’s from all these screens.
Ever since Covid, we aren’t working horizontally. We’re working vertically and I imagine it’s making us much less inventive.
Working horizontally evokes you to make higher concepts and join them to extra locations.
Enable me to elucidate.
Just lately, I used to be on yet one more Zoom/Groups presentation. About 8 slides in I used to be misplaced on the concept. Too many slides. Partitions of phrases. Practically unimaginable to really feel the power.
What made issues worse is that because the presentation continued there was one thing fascinating on slide 11. And I believed it might work even higher with the notion on slide 17. Or wait, was it slide 18? I wasn’t positive. I couldn’t see them collectively horizontally — in entrance of me.
Aspect-by-side is far more efficient than slide-by-slide.
By the way in which, is the human mind extra wired to be inventive — horizontally? In any case, going again to our Homo Sapien-ancestors who roamed the Earth, there have been no skyscrapers. There was clear line-of-sight. Mesas and plains. Extensive swaths of land that could possibly be harvested. And, critically, wanted to be scoured to determine greater, quicker and extra ferocious creatures. Survival could also be the perfect inspiration for creativity.
As a inventive, I didn’t assume vertically. And my concepts and profession accelerated once I discovered how you can assume horizontally.
It began with concepts on paper, then pinned up on partitions or gator foam boards with silver push pins.
You’d put up your visuals, scripts, and out of residence boards. And while you had a number of concepts in entrance of you that’s when the magic occurred.
You possibly can see connections. You possibly can join dots. You possibly can take a tagline from one marketing campaign in your left and marry it to a visible on the appropriate.
You possibly can gang a number of concepts from a number of elements of the wall and put them collectively to kind one marketing campaign.
You possibly can take a single concept and unfold it out throughout a complete ecosystem from a print advert to tv to digital to retail.
You possibly can additionally get a way of scale. If an concept wasn’t leaping out from the wall, what likelihood did it have of standing out in the actual world?
Working horizontally impressed you to make higher concepts and join them to extra locations.
This was the Chiat Approach.
This was “Horizontal Pondering.”
There’s some science to this. In actual fact, the legendary doctor and psychologist Edward de Bono created a complete faculty of thought primarily based on the notion of “Lateral Pondering.”
In brief strokes, Lateral Pondering is about concepts that emerge while you assume exterior of the vertical logic and established patterns our brains like to create. It’s actually pondering exterior the field. Or on this occasion, pondering exterior the rectangle; and extra exactly, pondering exterior the display screen.
“Horizontal Pondering” is akin to this. It’s throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what different elements could be blended and mashed collectively to create a fair higher meal.
And to run additional with this culinary analogy, you really should cook dinner the spaghetti, take it out of the pot and throw it on the wall. (You may’t merely watch another person do it on TikTok).
This type of Horizontal Pondering has all however disappeared and in consequence, the world’s inventive output appears to be struggling.
When’s the final time you noticed a really nice and surprising advert marketing campaign? In Hollywood, it’s sequels and prequels reigning over new origin tales. The place is the subsequent VW Beetle? Or Beatles in music?
Proper now, Converse continues to be extra inventive than the Metaverse.
Recently, I’ve taken to notice playing cards.
I scribble concepts down and lay them out throughout my desk.
I’ll usually share these on display screen. And attempt to get people to start out scribbling, too.
It typically works.
However I preserve coming again to the horizon.
As Tom Petty sang,
“Into the nice vast open.
Beneath them skies of blue.
Out within the nice vast open.
A insurgent with out a clue.”
Solely this insurgent is aware of that concepts flourish when you possibly can see them.
Left to proper.
East to West.
Throughout the horizon.
Rob Schwartz is the Chair of the TBWA New York Group and an govt coach who channels his creativity, expertise and knowledge into serving to others get the place they need to be. This was initially posted on his Substack, RobSchwartzHelps, the place he covers work, life, and creativity.
Banner picture by creator (through Midjourney).
