(Part 2) Top products from r/advertising

The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators https://www.amazon.com/dp/1422134814/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_2kWKzbZH8JEGA

The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Beating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385512074/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_imWKzb0R9Z6GV

Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas https://www.amazon.com/dp/0738205370/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_MjWKzbS473XHB

These are three of my favorites that aren't focused on advertising. Each one has incredible insights. If possible, I would start with Blockbusting, then the 10 faces of innovation and I would finish by reading the innovators DNA alongside the power of habit. The power of habit is not a book on creativity but it will help you see how you can create habits that will drastically improve your creative outputs. The innovators DNA has a lot of cool exercises and specific habits that all creative leaders have and the power of habit will give you the know how to integrate those habits into your daily life.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business https://www.amazon.com/dp/081298160X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XsWKzbZXS0TP6

Being an art director is not "making the ads look pretty." That's being a graphic designer. "Type, sizing logos, fonts, etc" are all designer's skills. For learning design in the shortest amount of time, get these two books: The Mac Is Not a Typewriter and The Non-Designer's Design Book. The Typewriter book in particular is, page-for-page, the most efficient primer on typography I've ever read.

If you're going to work in advertising, it's important you that know what your art director partner actually does. Yes, an AD has to know all the designer stuff as well, but an AD's job goes far beyond fonts and layouts.

On a conceptual level, an art director is the same as a copywriter, the difference is that he tends to communicate ideas without words.

On an executional level, an art director has a solid grasp of what it means to visually be "on brand," which is analogous to a copywriter writing with a brand "voice."

An art director also doubles as a film director. He has to know how to tell a story. Is there a 30-second spot with no copy? Guess who writes that part of the script. That's right, the AD.

The visual storytelling skill carries over into photography. A good shot isn't simply a posed composition. A good shot tells an entire story — a story that propels the conceptual idea. This goes beyond good lighting and knowing how cameras work, this is why the AD works with a photographer to get a shot, as the photographer is executional, akin to a graphic designer.

I just finished reading Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's and if your experience is similar, you'll probably be great at advertising. John had to learn how to interact with other people by observing as an outsider, which is a super useful skill for advertising. You might also consider exploring the art side of things, and getting good at InDesign and Photoshop.

This comment nails it: it's fine to be generally quieter as log as you exert your confidence at the right moments.

I'm a Planner/Strategist, and in my earlier years the one critique during my reviews was that I wasn't asserting myself in meetings enough. It was true: whenever there would be waves of (extroverted) people endlessly talking over each other, I tended to recede into silence, which is a problem when they were paying me to share what I think.

These days, when the room is rambling, I use that time to mentally hone the thing I want to contribute, so that I can really make the most of the eventual opening in that conversation. Doing that over time, you can develop a reputation for making the most insightful contributions to a meeting, as opposed to those who just talk the most.

(Oh, and if you haven't read the book Quiet by Susan Cain, you absolutely should. It's an excellent guide on how to use the strengths of your introversion in environments that are skewed towards extroverts.)

Dave Trott is a bloody legend.

His blog is one that I always find myself returning to.

It delivers a good mix of ideas, advice, and the feeling that you have not really done anything worthwhile - yet.

A considered, inspiring, weekly, kick up the arse.

It treads that fine line between condescending and patronising, enclosed in the confidence of been there, done that.

He now has a new book out.

I just ordered a copy. You should too.

There's also Confessions of an Advertising Man and Kenneth Roman's biography of Ogilvy, The King of Madison Avenue.

Here in Canada, Terry O'Reilly is highly respected. His book The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture is a great read.

Read Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This front to back.

Then, from there, it depends what you're going to be doing. I'm a copywriter so I read a lot of books tailored to that.

• Advertising Concept Book
  
• Creative Advertising
  
• Contagious
  
• And spent a lot of time on www.moderncopywriter.com looking at books to base mine off of.
  
• I've heard the Ogilvy books are good. I should read them.
  
  If you're not going in the creative side, there are still plenty of other books - and I think Whipple applies to all.
  
  

This book: slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations https://www.amazon.com/dp/0596522347/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_vexlyb1DWMW7Z

read:
The Idea Writers
http://www.amazon.com/Idea-Writers-Copywriting-Marketing-Advertising/dp/0230613888
Winning The Story Wars
http://winningthestorywars.com/

both are recent.
Ogilvy is a classic for sure. Ogilvy is great on the craft of writing

"Then We Came to the End" by Joshua Ferris is a pretty entertaining read.

Trademarks and Symbols, by Yasaburo Kuwayama. The one he shows is "Alphabetical Design" which is volume 1. Volume 2 is "symbolical design". It looks like they're pretty hard to find and quite sought after.

If you've got about $3,100 laying around, you can buy both.

http://www.amazon.com/Alphabetical-Designs-Trademarks-Yasaburo-Kuwayama/dp/0442245637/

http://www.amazon.com/Symbolical-Designs-Trademarks-Yasaburo-Kuwayama/dp/0442245645/

Twenty Ads that Shook the World by James B. Twitchell. I'm reading it for my advertising class, and it's really great! It goes through twenty advertisements that changed the game, and the creatives/agencies behind them.

https://www.amazon.ca/Twenty-That-Shook-World-Groundbreaking/dp/0609807234

Made to Stick and Perfect Pitch are two books about presentations/selling that I've found particularly helpful.

/u/wherepoetrygoestodie made a good list so far.

I will give my art director this Wreck this journal

My introduction to ad-land was "The Age of Persuassion". If you need something to listen to while doing the dishes, or driving you should check out the Radio series as well.

This one and [this one, too] (https://www.amazon.com/WHATS-BIG-IDEA-That-Sell/dp/0385414862/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495825538&sr=1-7&keywords=george+lois)

This book isn't powerpoint-specific, but depending on where you're starting from, a few fundamentals could make a world of difference in visual presentations.