Death Notice of A Creativity Metaphor

[Note: I first posted this over a year ago, and it was one of my most commented upon pieces. Alas, since the "light bulb" is still the conventional symbol for "new ideas," I think its message is still relevant. Any replacement suggestions are much appreciated.]

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Today, I'm announcing the death of a long time metaphor for creativity and innovation: the light bulb.

If you think about it, it's really quite amazing that a 125-year-old invention has had such longevity as a symbol for fresh thinking.

Imagine, for example, if the Long Play (LP) phonograph album (the 33 RPM version popularized in the 1950s) had become the metaphor for "new ideas." It would have been laughed out of existence no later than the early 1980s.

This hit home to me in a recent conversation I had with an art director with one of my publishers. We were reviewing cover mock-ups for one of my upcoming projects. One of them had a light bulb — symbolizing a "new idea."

I told her: "We can't use the light bulb for two reasons. First, it's a very, very, very old metaphor for a new idea. And second, the environmentalists are going to vilify the incandescent light bulb in coming years."

So long, trusty innovation metaphor. You served well! But it's time to find something new.

Question: What are your suggestions for the new creativity metaphor?

[Note: I first posted this over a year ago, and it was one of my most commented upon pieces. Alas, since the "light bulb" is still the conventional symbol for "new ideas," I think its message is still relevant. Any replacement suggestions are much appreciated.]

* * * * * * * * * *

Today, I'm announcing the death of a long time metaphor for creativity and innovation: the light bulb.

If you think about it, it's really quite amazing that a 125-year-old invention has had such longevity as a symbol for fresh thinking.

Imagine, for example, if the Long Play (LP) phonograph album (the 33 RPM version popularized in the 1950s) had become the metaphor for "new ideas." It would have been laughed out of existence no later than the early 1980s.

This hit home to me in a recent conversation I had with an art director with one of my publishers. We were reviewing cover mock-ups for one of my upcoming projects. One of them had a light bulb — symbolizing a "new idea."

I told her: "We can't use the light bulb for two reasons. First, it's a very, very, very old metaphor for a new idea. And second, the environmentalists are going to vilify the incandescent light bulb in coming years."

So long, trusty innovation metaphor. You served well! But it's time to find something new.

Question: What are your suggestions for the new creativity metaphor?

Comments

[Craig Kaiser]

The trouble with so many metaphors is that they can't conveniently be reduced to a simple, easily-recognizable, stylized image. The argument for light-bulb as pictogram is pretty strong because it is rich with history and simple in form.

Whatever the suggestion, it also needs a strong opposite. What is the anti-image? The bad idea. An unlit lightbulb is OK, but weak, differing only in color. A broken light bulb isn't great either. There's no convenient pictogram for "dark".

Vitaly's post on the difference between a metaphor and a pictogram is a good one. The image needs to be universal and simple, and those two things are very hard to come by. Envelopes work pretty well for letters, but mailboxes are much more troublesome because they don't look the same in different parts of the world.

Everyone who has seen electricity has seen a lightbulb. It was the *first* way to produce artificial light, and is therefore forever tied to creativity and innovation. Its connection with light, and enlightenment, is about as universal as you can get.

I'd love to find other metaphors, but so far I haven't been successful.

[Randy Bosch]

I have come around to "the lightning bolt". It is a timeless symbol, unlinked to cultural or technological icons and representative of the "Aha!", "Eureka" moments that link "new idea" to what a new idea truly is - comprehension, understanding, discovery. The exclamation point is a punctuation symbol that is often synonymous with it. It also can represent the pain of a bad idea (remember "Wizard of Id"?).

(My other idea was Roger's smile, but that would be too patronizing for me to mention!)

Lightning Bolt!!!!!

[Emma DAvey]

This is an interesting post although I mostly disagree with it! I'm
currently doing a university project on finding an alternative for the lightbulb for when there was no electricty, in the Victorian ages what do you think could represent and idea then?