Creativity isn't just about having ideas - far from it. This book from the Yorkshire-based consultancy CMC covers a technique that is particularly useful when it comes to structuring, selecting from and refining ideas, rather grandly titled LogoVisual Thinking (LVT).

The concept of LVT fits broadly into the wider sphere of cognitive mapping, the most common form of which is Tony Buzan's Mind Maps. Both provide a visual structure for ideas - in the case of mind maps, a tree structure growing out from a blob in the centre of a page. LVT uses a structure based on individual, moveable units, most often hexagonal in shaped, which can be manoeuvred physically into different positions, both to represent processes and to provide grouping and structures to ideas. LVT can be undertaken in its most simple form with conventional post-it notes or record cards and pins - or you can resort to custom made hexagons or software.

The book has three major sections - "method" describing what LVT actually is, "application" looking at how the method can be put into practical use, and "case studies", perhaps the most valuable bit, which describes twelve specific examples of using LVT to achieve different goals from authoring and coaching to problem solving.

The book is clear, smart and well laid-out. If you feel LVT may be for you - and from our experience it's well worth a try - this is the LVT equivalent of The Mind Map Book (see ) - an excellent guide to the technique that will make it practically easy to try out for real.

There are a couple of concerns. The biggest is that the book does occasionally read a little like a sales spiel, or the manual for a piece of software. LVT is a process that is hard to separate from the physical tools for the job, and the authors are unashamedly in the business of selling those tools. The other, more minor, concern is that though this is quite an expensive book at £25, it isn't very big (95 sides of A4), and though it is very glossily finished, the ringbound A4 presentation gives it rather less the feel of reading a "real" book than is normally the case. Neither of these concerns are stoppers, but they do need highlighting.

As yet the book isn't available from Amazon, but it can be bought direct from CMC at their website.