UNION, NJ — Kean University Professor Robin Landa’s 25th book was launched with celebrity cachet in November when her former student, Kean graduate and television star Holly Taylor, hosted an Instagram Live session for her 109,000 followers.
Taylor designed the cover and inside illustrations for the book, “The New Art of Ideas: Unlock Your Creative Potential.” The actor, who was raised in Wayne, plays Angelina Meyer on the NBC/Netflix series “Manifest” and is well-known for her role in the FX series “The Americans.” She graduated summa cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in graphic design/interactive advertising from Kean’s Michael Graves College in 2021.
“Holly was my student, and I was her adviser,” Landa said. “When I was planning the book, Holly was working on ‘Manifest’ and had a lot of downtime on set. I needed somebody who was brilliant and talented, but also responsible, and Holly met every deadline, even with her full-time acting gig.”
Taylor said she wanted the bright green cover and inside black-and-white illustrations to be “clean, modern, gender neutral and eye-catching.”
“In designing the book, it was important that it was approachable and accessible to all people and professions, so people who saw the book on the shelf wouldn’t think it was just for men or women or creatives,” Taylor said. “I thought having bold shapes would really help.”
The book outlines an idea-generating technique Landa said she has been teaching to her students throughout her 35-year career to help them overcome the frustrations that can come with trying to develop new ideas for projects.
“The book is about how to get ideas, worthwhile ideas that benefit individuals, society, creatures and the planet,” Landa said.
Landa’s method is called the Three Gs — goal, gain and gap. Setting a goal, identifying a gap that needs to be addressed, and assessing the goal and gap for the gain, or benefit, is where the spark of an idea is born, she said.
About the book, Taylor said, “It’s a great gift to anybody because you can apply it to any career you’re in.”
The motivation to generate ideas, for Landa, is what she calls the triple bottom line — people, planet and profit, in that order. She follows that altruistic code herself by donating a portion of the royalties from the sale of all of her books to scholarships for students in Kean’s Robert Busch School of Design.
Landa launched the book with a virtual panel discussion for 30 design professionals, who logged in to discuss “The New Art of Ideas” and what it offers creatives in the industry and teachers of design.
Landa, whose top-selling books are “Graphic Design Solutions” and “Advertising by Design,” keeps a busy writing schedule outside of her teaching duties at Kean. Another one of her books, “Strategic Creativity,” came out in June, and she is currently co-writing “Shareworthy Storytelling for Advertising” with Greg Braun, retired global chief creative at Commonwealth//McCann in Detroit.
Photo Courtesy of Margaret McCorry