Cultural Fuel

What It Is

A secret weapon for breaking out of the brand echo chamber. Cultural Fuel means swapping the brand for something human. A feeling. A mood. A trend. A scene from your own life. Use that to spark the work.

Go to the Brand input box. Instead of typing in a brand, type in something from the real world. Try “running fatigue.” Or “impromptu indulgence.” Or “the feeling of staying in when you were supposed to go out.”

It’s not cool hunting. It’s idea hunting through your own lens. Your taste. Your obsessions. Your 3am TikTok rabbit holes.

▶ Watch how it works — this video says it better than words.

Why It Works

This trick shakes off the usual constraints and taps into something way deeper.

• Detours = discovery: Swerving away from the brand leads to more surprising, original ideas.
• Culture-first thinking: You’re designing for people, not personas on a slide.
• Permission to play: And play is where the unexpected stuff shows up.

Visual example: Think about the Bauhaus Movement versus Apple. Bauhaus wasn’t a brand, it was a cultural force, an aesthetic, a philosophy, a way of thinking about design. But it’s also the creative DNA that helped shape products like the iPod decades later.

That’s the power of Cultural Fuel. You’re not just borrowing cool references. You’re mining the culture that shaped the culture. The upstream influences. The sparks before the spark.

How to Try It

1. Go to the Brand input box when starting a new session.
2. Type in Cultural Fuel instead of a brand. Think:

• “Running fatigue” instead of “Nike”
• “Impromptu indulgence” instead of “Uber Eats”
• “Unorganized life” instead of “Evernote”

1. Let the tool interpret it for you. Then push it further.

• What emotions or problems does that cultural input reflect?
• What weird associations does it spark?
• What’s the tone, texture, or energy of that moment?

Here's an example of using Cultural Fuel in the Big Brand Ideas tool working off "Running Fatigue" instead of "Nike"

Bonus Spark

Need help finding good Cultural Fuel? Here are three pools to dive into and what to look for in each.

• Books / Film / Art
  What’s something you’ve read, watched, or seen lately that stuck with you?
  Example: The quiet determination in Chariots of Fire could inspire ideas about perseverance or worn-out gear that’s been through it all.
• Cultural Trends
  What are people into right now? What’s showing up in your feed or group chats?
  Example: The comeback of paper planners and physical books might suggest a craving for slower, more tactile experiences.
• Your own life
  What’s going on in your world? What tiny, human moments could turn into insights?
  Example: Not every runner is training for a marathon. Some are just trying to catch a bus. That shift could unlock more relatable, everyday angles.

What Happens Next

You stop thinking like a brief machine and start thinking like a human. Cultural Fuel doesn’t just inspire better ideas, it makes them richer and way less expected.