Welcome to Idealy Docs
Welcome to Idealy!
Idealy is an idea generation platform for creative professionals who want great ideas at scale.
These docs will show you how to use Idealy to get the best results - covering all the tools, features and everything else you need.
If you have any questions, issues, bugs or feedback that isn't addressed here - please submit a feedback report here.
Introduction To Idealy
Great original ideas are out there, and they follow patterns.
That's the basic assumption behind Idealy; that it is possible to discover new ideas.
What Is An 'Idea'?
When we talk about Ideas in Idealy - what we're really talking about are phrases, sayings, one-liners or titles that are usually (but not always) funny - and are ideal for use as designs for products (eg. T-Shirts), or headlines for advertising campaigns or posters.
These usually take the form of single sentences (if that). Examples:
- Take Me To Your Tacos
- Desperately Seeking Salsa
- I Don't Wanna TACO bout it
It is these kind of sayings, puns and one-liners that are the bread and butter of what Idealy is designed to produce at scale. The types of ideas that can become designs for a variety of products (eg. T-Shirts, mugs, greetings cards) - but could equally be used as headlines for advertising campaigns, memes for social media, titles for books or podcasts - and a wide variety of further potential use cases wherever anyone needs wordplay, humour or irony in a self-contained package.
Why (Original) Ideas Matter
Idealy is designed to help you find original ideas - by which we mean lines, phrases, sayings and concepts that do not already exist.
Idealy uses tools to generate ideas based on word play, rhyme, meaning and more - it is not a database of pre-existing ideas, examples, nor is it a 'swipe file' of bestsellers or what already worked.
Original ideas matter for a number of reasons:
- Novelty attracts attention.
- Originality is protectable.
- Originality is a beach head (snow ball effect)
- Originality denotes quality. (quite apart from the real impact of demonstrating humour as demonstrating high IQ - )
There really is very limited benefit to doing anything not-original - and a lot of benefits for those who produce original ideas consistently and at scale.
But originality here does not mean completey unique and detached. As you'll see - Idealy uses existing frameworks and patterns to uncover original, meaningful and novel concepts, even if built on the building blocks of well-recognised, pre-existing material.
We don't want originality for the sake of originality - but because there are so many unrealised GOOD ideas out there previously undiscovered.
Idealy Core Principles
More Ideas = Better Ideas
"The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas" - Linus Pauling (Nobel Prize Winner, Chemistry)
Good ideas are not 'worked up' - they are discovered through exploration. The faster you can explore through potential or possible ideas - the quicker you are to find the strongest ideas.
Idealy achieves this through tools that filter ideas based on proven patterns, hooks and frameworks - allowing you to look scan hundreds of potential ideas to surface the best ones.
Idealy is not designed to present you with a small amount of 'final' ideas - but to present you with plenty of options - allowing you and your personal taste, use case and workflow to stumble upon truly unique insights and 'aha moments'.
Good Ideas Are Real
Good ideas exist - and the vast majority lay undiscovered.
There is no limit on ideas - but there are limits on our ability to discover them.
Idealy exists to break through those limits so you can discover the ideas that lay beyond.
Because good ideas are real - we can use 'real' tools to find them. Humour, comedy and taste are real too - but this does not mean that all is subjective. There are such things as good and bad ideas - lines, jokes, phrases and sayings which are ideal for certain use purposes - compared with others which are not. These good ideas - once found and executed well - lead to better results than bad ones. It may not be possible to predict every reaction to every idea - but it is possible to avoid the bad and prioritise the good.
Good Ideas Follow Patterns
There are universal principles of humour that are present in all good jokes.
And whilst there are a wide variety of joke formats - the underyling principles are always present if a joke is to work.
Simiarly, concepts and lines for T-Shirts or for advertising campaigns must operate along these limitations if they are to work.
We can observe and deduce these principles by looking at succesful and popular formats - and reverse engineer tools to help us surface lines and ideas working on the same principles.
'Original' does not mean detatched, alone and floating in a vaccum. Original means a specfic, particular idea not previously used (or at least not used in your particular use case) - but it may well be a product of pre-existing frameworks, idioms, etc. There is no new thing under the sun - but that does not mean you cannot find ideas that are original - only that those ideas (if good) will run on existing principles.
Ideas Are Not Fixed Units
Because there's no limit of good ideas (new ones all the time) - ideas are not some fixed unit or widget. They are not commodities, they are not fungible. They can be moulded and adapted into various forms depending on the use case and the creator (and intended audience) - so should not be regarded as 'take it or leave it' fixed forms.
Idealy will often surface the 'spark' of an idea that may require a degree of development before it reaches it's final form. This is the nature of ideas. We are searching for gold, but with our own tastes and influences in mind. What works for one will not work for another.
Idealy started life as a tool for T-Shirt designers - who need lots of new, original concepts to turn into designs. In that context - an idea could mean a funny phrase, a pun, a parody concept or a simple catchy saying.
Idealy helps you generate, refine, and organize brand name ideas, phrases, and visuals faster.
Use this help center to learn how to:
- Set up your account and workspace
- Use each core idea and visual tool
- Manage credits and plan limits
- Troubleshoot common issues