Alex F. Osborn, who first codified the brainstorming process in the 1930’s, was a journalist before going into advertising. Osborn was the "O" in BBD&O, where he developed a technique for getting a group of people to use their combined powers to generate multiple potential solutions to problems. Sean Kelly's Creativity Seminar outlines Osborn's original research, finds new ways to utilize his process by combining it with other techniques, and applies them to creative challenges in a variety of fields and industries.
Osborn's first book, "Your Creative Power"(1938), was enticingly subtitled, "How to use your imagination to brighten life, to get ahead," and was followed nine years later by "Applied Imagination." This title is apt and a logical progression, for today the distinction is made that "creativity" is the ideas, and "innovation" is the application of the ideas.
