
Creativity, if we’re being honest, is mostly about refusing to settle for the first thing your brain coughs up.
Hi. I’m Juggi Ramakrishnan. And I’ve been in the ideas business for close to 35 years now. What drew me to it back then is still what gives me goosebumps today: the pure buzz of cracking a problem with an idea so neat, so right, that it feels like it’s always existed. An idea that follows you into sleep, brews itself into your morning coffee, and then reminds you, mid-sip, that it’s still there and still great. An idea that makes you smile. Not the smug smile of ego, but the quiet, involuntary grin of an eight-year-old clicking the final piece into a giant jigsaw puzzle.
If you want to feel that kind of wonder regularly and not just once a year and by sheer accident, you have to be prolific. You need lots of ideas. So you can sift and select like Jay Leno picking a ride from his garage.
So pretty early on, I started developing a system to generate ideas at scale. I wanted to be able to get them down fast, on deadline, under pressure, even when I was exhausted or self-doubting. I wanted to reach beyond the obvious, trek to the Timbuktus and Taklamakans of the mind, where others wouldn’t think to go.
I also spent time studying ideas. I dissected them like a tax auditor with a grudge. Not just ads, but films, stand-up, novels and memes. I mapped patterns, structures, triggers, beats. And over time, I built myself the mental scaffolding you see here today.
The tools in this deck were originally just for me, to shake my own brain out of autopilot. But I never talked about them. Because I assumed, honestly, that they’d sound ridiculous to everyone else.
It was only in 2016 that it dawned on me that other people might appreciate them too. Since launching the first deck, I’ve had the privilege of regularly opening my inbox to a thank you note from some of the best minds in the business.
Which brings us to now. Last year, I started playing with the idea of expanding the deck to include additional mental tricks I’d been squirreling away. Most of the original deck now sits under the ‘All-Purpose Toolkit’. I’ve kept this free.
The expanded version, with the time and obsessive energy required to keep the whole thing alive, are made possible by your subscription.
Thank you. I hope the deck brings you many moments of brilliance.
What they're saying about
the Deck of Brilliance
Love what you have done here. And I really appreciate the time and effort you’ve put in making this so simple and consise. A big thanks from all us creatives around the globe.
Cam Watts
Director of Communications
This is gym, wellness spring, superfood and shrine for your creative soul. The Deck of Brilliance has brought me strange thoughts, unusual ideas and great joy for over a decade. I visit whenever seeking inspiration, vainly hoping it’s just me, Juggi and a few devoted deck-heads who know of its existence.
What an extraordinary gift. The answer to every creative riddle lurks somewhere amidst these insights and executions. If you use it daily and stay patient and prolific, no machine will ever replace you.
Shehan Karunatilaka
Author and Copywriter. 0 Cannes Lions. 1 Booker Prize.
Not only is this a repository of the best ads ever, but the best ads ever are set in context. This is useful for anyone in the industry.
Ross Chowles
Painter, Professor of Advertising
I’m sure this will turn out to be illegal, because it’s a very unfair performance enhancing advantage over the poor sods who can’t afford it.
Steve Elrick
Writer, Creative Director
The Insight Mining Toolkit can help even experienced strategists look at things from new perspectives, while the ideation toolkits help with understanding the internal structure of creative ideas – especially when evaluating them and supporting the creative team in selling them to clients.
Brigi Csurgó
Head of Strategy, Mito
The Deck of Brilliance is as close as we will ever get to answer the eternal question: How do you come up with ideas?
Anselmo Ramos
Co-Founder, Creative Chairman of GUT
Brilliant tool, for people like me, who just can’t get started.
Neil French
Former Ad-man
The Deck of Brilliance has been my go-to friend in times of darkness in the few 14 years of my career. No matter how jaded I felt, this brought me back to life.
Zaheen B
Creative Director
I love how it gets you thinking, how it sends you off in different directions.
John Daly
Creative
This is crazy solid work. The thinking is sharp and the examples are great. If the problem/objective is well defined, I’m sure you just need to confront it with one of these tools to generate tons of great ideas.
Nicolas Courant
CCO, Ogilvy Singapore
This deck kicks arse. It kicks tired creatives’ arses out of the ruts they were stuck in and reminds them there are many different ways to think about any problem.
Craig Love
Lead Creative Writer, Auckland Transport
It’s great to see so many different ways into a problem in one place.
David Baldwin
Founder & Lead Guitar, Baldwin&
Ridiculously good, incredibly under-valued!
Tej Desai
Brand Builder, Growth Consultant
I wish that this had existed twenty years ago. And that no one else knew.
Paul Catmur
Writer, Ex-Adman
One of my go-to-resources I share each semester with my students, just got better! Really really nice and love the updates.
Niklas Seemann
Lecturer / Senior Creative Generalist (Strategy, Social, Storytelling & Ai)
It’s every creative person’s wet dream.
Paul Ruta
Freelance Writer, Author
Off-the-scale genius booster for anyone in the ideas business.
Benoit Wiesser
Strategist, Impact Investor
When internal politics or client feedback has killed your vibe, Deck of Brilliance can breathe life back into the creative process. Just watch a few ads, flip some cards and feel the cogs start to turn again.
Leah Morris
Associate Creative Director, RGA
“Deck of Brilliance” has been a pivotal tool in our team to say: ‘Don’t just do the brief, flip it.’ It gave us a way to see problems from 52 different angles — and the confidence to actually pitch a fresh one.
Kit Meng
Associate Creative Director
Anna Stacey Rubin
Copywriter
Incredibly outstanding resource. Hats off to Juggi Ramakrishnan. It works brilliantly at multiple levels. As a thinking aid, as an inspiring playground, and as a mind opener to a world of enormous possibilities. Although focused on creative professionals, I see it being hugely useful for those interested in impactful communication. (I would recommend it to clients too. In the hope, that it raises the bar and compels them to get out of the ocean of sameness.)
Umesh Shrikhande
NewAnswers Consultant, Former CEO Taproot Dentsu
Such an inspiration. I’d make it mandatory for anyone getting into the industry. Like David Ogilvy’s confessions.
Rasjida Bouharrak
CEO, Fred & Farid
This tool deck is beyond helpful and will greatly help current and future students. Hell, it might even put me out of a job. Or, hopefully keep me employed for finding such brilliance like this.
Paul Korel
Teacher
It will help the junior creative get a seat at the table, and the senior creative keep his seat at the table.
Joel Clement
International Creative Director
D&AD, Cannes, One Show. Wonderfully inspiring, but they don’t actually show you how to get great ideas. The Deck of Brilliance is the toolkit you need to be in those award shows next year.
Graham Fink
Multimedia Artist, Creative Director
In a world of growing artificiality and programmed ‘intelligence’, you’ve found a way to keep the ‘human’ element front and centre in the quest for creativity, real-world innovation and invention. Nice work. Hope it just grows and grows…
Barry Anderson
Owner/Brand and Creative Strategist at Creative Intelligence Agency
This concept is long overdue and really seems to work. It’s clear that a lot of hard work and thought has gone into it and it should prove a game-changer for hard-pressed creatives up against constant deadlines.”
Malcolm Pryce
Novelist and Copywriter
This is in a league of its own. Really well thought through. Well written and illustrated idea generation tools. This deck is easy to use and so it will be used. It really proves the ‘science of our art’.
Linda Locke
Owner/Children's Author—Godmotherbooks
Goosebumps from stem to stern! Truly a deck of brilliance!
Ravi Eshwar
Senior Creative Director, Adgeek, Wordnerd
What an update! It’s the best 100 bucks I’ve ever spent.
Stephan Schwarz
Executive Creative Director, LePub APAC
Whoever said creative genius cannot be explained has never met Juggi. Juggi’s superpower isn’t just creating world class insights and ideas, but being able to calmly and clearly tell you how he got there.
Sandy Burns
Partner / Head of Brand - Moonlight Entertainment