How to Get Expressions Product Ideas
By Stephen Bucaro
Your personal expression product, be it a t-shirt, mug, or refridgerator magnet,
must display a funny or witty statement that the potential buyer can identify
with. You can create a statement related to any field of employment, hobby, pastime,
or almost any activity.
Look to the media for clues to trends and social phenomena. Analyze TV shows,
movies, newspapers and magazines. What are people doing and saying, feeling and
listening to, liking and wearing? Always be on the lookout for a catchy phrase.
To create an idea related to a specific subject, list all the words and
phrases you can think of that pertain to the subject. Below are some other ways
to create funny or witty statement:
• Make fun of Societies problems
• Exaggerate social customs, phenomenon, and fads.
• Make fun of peoples common problems; problems with their jobs,
their spouses, their children, pets, or friends that annoy them.
• Exaggerate the amount of time people spend and the sacrifices
people make for their interests, hobbies, or favorite pursuits.
• Empathize with the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of another.
• Write down something that a person might want to communicate
- a "me to you message" or a "message to the world". Then state it in a clever
or eloquent way.
• Think about various groups that people can be fit into -
emographic or common interest groups. What issues or problems do members of these
groups have?
• Relate words and phrases that pertain to the subject to the
five senses - what do you see, hear, feel, taste and smell?
Look for ways in our increasingly homogenized society for individuals to make a
statement about their uniqueness as individuals. Humor is a good source of ideas
for expression products. Humor expressions are purchased just because the joke is
funny and the person wants to share it. Humor applies to real life situations,
issues, and people.
Humor is relevant, it tells it like it is. Humor can be achieved through the use
of understatement, exaggeration, or surprise. Humor can rely on an insult, not hostile
insults, but a sarcastic exchange between friends. Risque humor is very successful,
but don't confuse this with x-rated. Risque humor hints rather than uses specifics.
The expression can be completely visual, for example a sight gag. The most common
image is either people stylized to make them funny or animals made funny by adding
human clothing, postures, attitudes, or situations. Or the expression can be completely
in the writing, for example a pun or play-on-words. Or it can be in the in the
combination of the image and the text.
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