Download the toolkit
Download the entire Toolkit (v1.1) in one file (190MB PDF)
Please note this is a very large file and may take several minutes to download.
The Toolkit file contains the following components, which can be downloaded individually:
- Introduction booklet v1.1 (40 MB pdf) or as an EPUB (16 MB) or read it online
- Image cards (145 MB pdf) or as JPGs (high-res and low-res) (720 MB zip)
- Concept cards (1.7 MB pdf) or as PNGs: included in 720 MB zip above
- A3 Worksheets (160 kB pdf)
Try out the online New Metaphors generator. Or buy a printed pack.
You might also be interested in a conference paper we published about the development of the New Metaphors method, which gives more of the academic background. The paper is based around an earlier prototype of the cards:
Dan Lockton, Devika Singh, Saloni Sabnis, Michelle Chou, Sarah Foley, Alejandro Pantoja (2019). ‘New Metaphors: A Workshop Method for Generating Ideas and Reframing Problems in Design and Beyond’. C&C 2019: ACM Conference on Creativity & Cognition. June 2019, San Diego. doi:10.1145/3325480.3326570 (open-access PDF)
If you’d like to use or embed the rather rough-and-ready random “juxtaposer” on the homepage, you are welcome to do so, or create a better one. The Twitter bot is in need of an update too.
If you’d like to cite the toolkit:
Dan Lockton, Devika Singh, Saloni Sabnis, Michelle Chou (2019). New Metaphors: A Creative Toolkit for Generating Ideas and Reframing Problems. Pittsburgh & Dawlish: Imaginaries Lab, ISBN 978-0-9565421-2-0 (print) ISBN 978-0-9565421-3-7 (PDF)
The cards, booklet, and worksheets are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence. Photos included in the cards are by Dan Lockton, Devika Singh, Michelle Chou, Tammar Zea-Wolfson, Shengzhi Wu, Sofía Bosch, Marisa Lu, and Soonho Kwon. The booklet additionally includes images contributed by Laura Devendorf, Susanne Kirchner, Marysol Ortega Pallanez, Michal Luria, Corine Britto, and Linas Gabrielaitis.
Please email dan@imaginari.es with questions, comments, ideas, and suggestions. After two initial print runs, one a set of prototypes, and one a crowdfunded edition, the printed cards are not currently available for sale (due to complications arising from Brexit and COVID travel restrictions), but our aim is to have this sorted out by summer 2021. Sign up to our newsletter to hear when they go on sale.