Wide-use spawns diffuse definitions talks about how the ubiquity and malleability of “brand” and “branding” are diluting their meaning.

Coming to terms: “Brand” attempts to add dimension and precision to a term-of-art that now seems to be applied to just about everything by everyone everywhere.

And, Coming to terms: “Branding” offers some depth to the definition, digging into how and why a brand is more than just a logo.

I don’t know. For the DIY web content developer, this approach could be one level of abstraction too many. Or, you might find that abstraction just what you needed for all the hysteria around brands and branding to start making sense.

It’d be great to hear from anyone–here or over at Marketing Watchdog–who found these posts helpful.

Lesson One reaffirms a course I took in grad school taught by Glenn Karowski. Although textured and comprehensive, the main take-away can be summed by the class’s name: “The creative process.” Not creative magic. Not voodoo. Not the gift of creativity. Process.

I entered the caption contest for the first time just a few months ago when an idea popped into my head (and had not entered before because nothing had come speedily to mind). But that first inspiration was like a double-dare to do it again. So, when the next issue came, I turned to the last page, looked at the captionless cartoon and … nothing. And that raised a question that comes up almost daily in my work.

What do you when the light bulb doesn’t go off?

There exists a mythical creature known as a “creative person.” Just as leprechauns can lead you to the pot of gold or a genie can grant three wishes, a creative person is believed to be able somehow to tap into a magic fount of ideas and concepts. Ask for an idea, and all they have to do is uplink to the mothership from Planet Creative and, zzzt, there it is. Mount it on foam core, pitch it and submit an exorbitant invoice.

Yes, I’m certain some people are born with more natural creative talent than others. And, most everybody has, at least once or twice, been visited by an effortless insight. But even for the most creative, the killer concept is usually the result of hard work. When the idea doesn’t magically appear—and it almost never does—you have to go looking for it. How quickly you find it, and how good it is when you do, will depend on working a process that’s systematic, methodical and disciplined.

I expect future posts will get into more detail about the creative process. In the meantime, here’s a cartoon for which no caption came readily to mind.

By spending fifteen minutes and applying a few pump-priming tricks, I did manage to generate a handful of caption ideas. Here are the three I liked best.

“If I live through this, I’m never voice-dialing again.”

“Turns out he can hear me now. And he’s not pleased.”

“I hate convergence.”

Which one do you think I should have entered? How do you think any of them compare to contest #287’s three finalists?

It also says a few things I’ve been saying over the years, but with a wit—not to mention Brit accent—that makes it more fun to listen to than my flat Midwestern drone.

The best points (said better in the clip):

One last point for those of us who struggle to spell correctly and to follow other, seemingly arbitrary grammar rules: The observation that really hit home was that bad spellers should spell everything perfectly because “without the arrogant assumption you don’t need to look things up, you’d look everything up.” I can hardly write a phone message or a shopping list without spell-checking it.

The clip, by the way, is from David Mitchell’s “Soapbox,” a weekly podcast from The Guardian.