W. Glenn Griffin, Ph.D.

Asst. Professor of Advertising

and Leader, Method Creative

SMU - Temerlin Advertising Institute

Dallas, TX 

Glenn teaches courses in creativity and portfolio development and leads the Method Creative program at SMU’s Temerlin Advertising Institute in Dallas, Texas. His research on creativity, education and social responsibility has appeared in the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Advertising Education and Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, among other publications. His students’ work has been featured in both national and international press, including Advertising Age, Adweek and CMYK magazines and recognized by The One Club for Art & Copy, the Art Directors Club of New York and the Clio Awards, among many other organizations. He is a frequent speaker at professional and academic conferences on the topics of creativity, advertising education and social responsibility. He lives in Richardson, Texas, but will always call his native Tuscaloosa, Alabama, “home.”

Deborah Morrison, Ph.D.

Chambers Distinguished Professor of Advertising
School of Journalism and Communication
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR

Deborah is the Chambers Distinguished Professor of Advertising at the University of Oregon. For two decades (maybe a little more), she’s worked with students in Oregon and at the University of Texas at Austin, where she built Texas Creative, one of the best university-based portfolio programs in the country. At the University of Oregon, she and her colleagues developed the successful creative strategist model, wherein all advertising specialties are grounded in creativity and strategic thinking. Morrison served on The One Club for Art & Copy’s board of directors for two terms (and is the only university educator to do so). She’s judged regional, national and international shows for students and professionals. She’s honored to have won the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication’s Jonathan Marshall Award for Innovative Teaching in 2008 and 2009 (the only two-time winner). She was awarded the William Blunk Professorship for teaching at the University of Texas and recognized as an ADC GrandMaster in education by the Art Directors Club in New York. She is also a founding patron of Platform, the Wieden+Kennedy creative lab in London. With Brett Robbs, she co-authored the book Idea Industry: How to Crack the Advertising Career Code. She’s had the good fortune of visiting, studying, and thinking about hundreds of agencies while learning from thousands of students, to whom she owes so much. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, with her dashing photojournalist husband Dan, and three wonderful sons, all of whom are growing up to be astounding men.

About Our Book

The Creative Process Illustrated: How Advertising's Big Ideas Are Born

W. Glenn Griffin and Deborah Morrison

HOW Books - Cincinnati, OH

Pre-orders can be placed here at Amazon.com.

It’s time to think about thinking. It’s time to appreciate the development of advertising as a fascinatingly interesting intellectual pursuit. It’s time to see the faces and hear the stories of men and women who could’ve done any number of meaningful things with their lives, but chose to do this (and to do it so well!). This book is a tribute to their professionalism, their achievements and their struggles. It’s also a wonderful testimony to the unique and wonderful brain each of them uses to earn a living. It will, we hope, inspire more smart, optimistic and ambitious people to follow in their footsteps. 

Most importantly, we’d like for this book to serve as documentation that creative directors, art directors and writers in advertising are some of the great artists and thinkers of our time. Considering the scope and power of their influence in our culture, that’s not such a crazy idea.

*** The book is set to be published in August 2010. ***