PS: Live Young

Another question: how do you keep up with what's going on?

OK, I shall follow your theme of brevity as I think you can see some of how I keep up to speed in my other postings.

Apart from reading various publications, I subscribe to a number of blogs which give me an overview of what’s going on. Some of them are listed on the right. You need to tap into what people are currently thinking and saying. I know Passive-Aggressive Notes is a little left of field (really here only for entertainment) but is a good example of real people doing real, unedited things - for example in the office space; hence the photo above. The industry blogs are great for other reasons but you cannot beat raw behaviour and thought – not filtered through clinical analysis or industry-speak. Make sure you grasp what motivates your people. If you need to really understand what’s going on, talk to them - go to the source. Talking of the source, Adverblog recently showed the Paul Smith Evian vid. For somebody from the North who went frequently to Nottingham and always made his way to one particular shop, I have admired Paul Smith and looked to him for inspiration. His mantra at the end of the short film and his “yesterday’s papers” comment in the middle are spot-on for those looking for new ideas: