ABOUT THE AUTHOR
When Robin’s student Brooke returned from her first week as an intern at a top New York City advertising agency, she said, “I was the only one on my team who rattled off one good idea after another. My creative director said we could use all my ideas. The other interns just sat there.”
Now Brooke is a senior art director at another top New York ad agency, where she creates award-winning ad campaigns for national brands. So are thousands of Robin’s other former students, who are award-winning professionals working in advertising and design, creativity-dependent businesses demanding many ideas daily.
Called “one of the great teachers of our time” by the Carnegie Foundation, Robin holds the title of Distinguished Professor in the Michael Graves College of Kean University. She has taught university students as well as trained industry professionals to generate lots of worthwhile ideas. It’s no surprise people consider Robin a creativity guru. But she’s more than that—Robin uses her creative powers for good.
With a strong moral compass, she asks her university students, the faculty she mentors, as well as the many Fortune 500 clients she advises, “How does your goal benefit individuals, society, or our planet? How can your idea make life better?” Robin champions her university students; advocates for industry diversity, equity, and inclusion; and provides university scholarships for meritorious students as well as students in need.
Like many creatives, Robin produces ideas in various forms—writing, design, advertising, fine art, screenwriting, and of course, her pedagogy. All of these endeavors feed her creative thinking and ability to communicate how to be strategically creative to others. She is the author of twenty-five books, including Strategic Creativity: A Business Field Guide for Advertising, Branding and Design; Graphic Design Solutions (sixth edition); Advertising by Design (fourth edition); and Nimble: Thinking Creatively in the Digital Age. Through her published tomes, Robin’s ideas teach people worldwide.
Robin has been recognized many times for her design, writing, teaching, art, and research, with awards from, among others, the National Society of Arts and Letters, the Art Directors Club of New Jersey, Graphic Design USA, and the National League of American Pen Women. She was named Kean University 2013 Teacher of the Year and received several Kean Presidential Excellence awards for research. For her humanitarian work, she received the 2015 Human Rights Educator award, and her student design team won humanitarian awards as well.
For six years, Robin was a cochair of Design Incubation, a national design research organization, and she has juried design and advertising competitions. Crack the Spine literary journal published several short stories by Robin, and the journal’s editor nominated Robin’s story “Just Desserts” for Best of the Net. Recently, Robin presented about personal branding at Columbia University. She is currently co-writing a book with Greg Braun, retired deputy global chief creative officer of Commonwealth/McCann, titled Shareworthy: Storytelling for Advertising for Columbia University Press.
When she’s not writing, teaching, or consulting, you can find Robin dancing with her husband or watching Jeopardy with their daughter in her hometown of New York City.
About the Illustrator/Designer
LESLIE HASSLER
Holly Taylor’s first words were, “I’m going to be on Broadway.” OK. Maybe not her first words, but that’s a pretty bold statement for a three-year-old. Bold statements like that have been manifesting themselves in unexpected ways throughout Holly’s life. One of them—“I’d love to illustrate a book one day”—is manifesting itself right here in The New Art of Ideas: Unlock Your Creative Potential.
A curious creative since childhood, Holly began her career at age eleven in Billy Elliot on Broadway, where she played Sharon Percy, a big-headed ballerina on pointe. After two years of performances, Holly was relieved to realize that acting meant playing a different person and that no one in the audience actually thought Holly was big-headed herself, so she decided to give acting a real try in Los Angeles. She ended up playing Paige Jennings on FX’s critically acclaimed drama series The Americans for six years. From there she has stepped into the shoes of other characters in projects like The Good Doctor, The Unsettling, and Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings. Most recently, she has played Angelina Meyer on Manifest. She is extra thankful that people can separate the character from the actor in this case (meaning: the character is a nut job).
Throughout this ever-changing and unpredictable journey through the performing arts, there has been one constant: Holly’s desire to be educated. She attended public middle school and high school in New Jersey while working, maintaining her honor roll standing, and participating in multiple student organizations. Seeking a backup plan in case the whole acting thing didn’t work out, Holly decided a degree in advertising design would be a smart balance between creativity and corporate opportunity. The Michael Graves College at Kean University provided an opportunity for higher education that could coexist with her acting schedule. While studying advertising design, Holly was advised and taught by the inspiring Robin Landa. Robin’s dedication to students, ever-growing curiosity, unique artistic talents, and passion for building a better future made her an inspiration to Holly and all students at Kean. Without her guidance or trust, Holly would not have been able to pursue her passion for design, fine arts, or creative thinking in such a nourishing environment.
Holly now lives in New York City, where she shoots Manifest while doing freelance design work for nonprofits, start-ups, friends, and her own sanity. You can find Holly Taylor on Netflix or at https://hollytaylor.design/.