I read three books on creativity last month: Emotion by Design by Greg Hoffman, Inspired by Matt Richtel, and The Runaway Species by Anthony Brandt and David Eagleman. All had interesting tidbits, though none blew me away with a whole new worldview.

If I had to pick a favorite of the three, it would be Emotion by Design. Hoffman is the former Chief Marketing Officer at Nike, where he worked in the design department for the majority of his career. I’ve often said the artists and makers can learn a lot about marketing from sport, and I loved how Hoffman weaves together these two areas so seamlessly. Art has the power to inspire in the same way that sport does, but for some reason we often fall short in using that same sense of emotion and connection in our marketing. I had two small complaints about Emotion by Design. One is that it’s hard to divorce my feelings about Nike as a brand from Nike as a company and the often questionable methods they use to manufacture their products. And the second is that, as an individual creative, it’s hard not to read some of the suggestions and think, “well of course those worked for Nike, they’re a huge company with a massive budget.” Still, of the three books I read on creativity, Emotion by Design left me feeling the most inspired.