Creative Genius Deck Classic

Available now for just $27
shipping worldwide $5*

What IS the Creative Genius Deck?

The Creative Genius deck is a pack of 52 cards for use during creative writing (or visual art). Either flip through the cards one by one or choose a card at random. The card deck was originally conceived and designed by me as an iPhone and iPad app (coming soon to the iTunes store) built by the amazing Damon Jones and John Molloy of inSignificant Productions. But I decided to also produce them as a physical deck and they turned out SO beautifully that I've decided to sell them here.

I've had a lifelong love affair with playing cards of all sorts, tarot cards, poker cards, Happy Families, and other card games. I was not part of the Top Trumps generation, that passed me by, but everything to do with cards has always fascinated me. My primary inspiration for the deck came from three main sources which I freely acknowledge here. I conceived these cards initially from my work with creative writers on my blog but I realised afterwards that the inspiration came from these and other sources.

The first and most obvious debt of thanks is of course to Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's wonderful Oblique Strategies, deck, a deck of "Over one hundred worthwhile dilemmas" made originally in 1975 and republished I think another four times since then.

A less obvious influence was the Zebu deck by Robert Anue, a set of language pattern cards based on the hypnosis techniques of Milton H Erickson, and published in 1992. This is long out of print, but something similar has recently been published by Ericksonian hypnotist Igor Ledochowski in his Conversational Hypnosis Card Deck. (A similar deck was recently devised and produced by Jamie Smart of Salad Consulting)

Obviously I'm also influenced by the robotic fortune telling machines at old time circuses and fairgrounds, boxes containing the top half of a mysterious swami who for a coin will dispense your future on a card from a conveniently located slot at the front of the case... Scary circus moods are a running theme in my work, both musically and artistically.

Enjoy these cards and let me know how you get on with them. Should you be interested at some point down the road there will be a limited edition deck in a gorgeous wooden presentation box and you can get details of this and all other products related to my work at http://www.writingfit.com.

Phil South, Somerset 2012

Also available:
The new Creative Genius Deck version 2.0
"the intimate lifecycle of ideas"
Read more

* please allow up to 20 business days for printing and delivery, depending on location