“A creative kaleidoscope of humor, insight, and truth,” Grant Snider’s graphic novel The Shape of Ideas: An Illustrated Exploration of Creativity offers ideas and insights to everyone looking to flex their creative muscles.
What does an idea look like? And where do they come from? Grant Snider’s illustrations will motivate you to explore these questions, inspire you to come up with your own answers and, like all Gordian knots, prompt even more questions.
Whether you are a professional artist or designer, a student pursuing a creative career, a person of faith, someone who likes walks on the beach, or a dreamer who sits on the front porch contemplating life, this collection of one- and two-page comics will provide insight into the joys and frustrations of creativity, inspiration, and process—no matter your age or creative background.
“An inventive window into the creative experience filled with hope and encouragement for daydreamers and doodlers, sketchers and scribblers, inventors, explorers, and spinners of yarns.” —*Newbery Medal winner Clare Vanderpool
Praise
"'What do ideas look like? Where do they come from?'... Surprisingly, Snider’s beautifully composed cartoons have cogent answers to those questions — or if they don’t, he’s at least an urgent asker. He’s created something unique: a synthesis of comics, philosophy, and poetry: a thoughtful new way of packaging eternal ideas in cartoon boxes."The Los Angeles Review of Books
—
"The tongue-in-cheek wit and self-deprecating style make this a pleasant introduction to the joy and frustration of making any kind of art, and the beautifully designed presentation—with a charming die-cut cover—is a fine proof of concept."Publishers Weekly
—
"Grant Snider’s The Shape of Ideas is a creative kaleidoscope of humor, insight, and truth. An inventive window into the creative experience filled with hope and encouragement for daydreamers and doodlers, sketchers and scribblers, inventors, explorers, and spinners of yarns."Newbery Medal Winner for Moon Over Manifest and the Printz Honor for Navigating Early, Clare Vanderpool
—
“...a lighthearted visual examination of the labor behind the creative process.”Hyperallergic
—
"Grant Snider's work delivers introspection, humor, and inspiration in visually stunning drawings. They are a colorful look into the creative process—from the moments of quiet contemplation to the days of frenzied desperation."author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain
—
"A friendly, encouraging depiction of the creative process, with its highs and lows, from a comics creator."The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
—
"The Shape of Ideas is a book about looking, process, struggle, and how one creative orthodontist in Wichita has no choice but to create, and has done so since he can remember."NPR Wichita
—
