In this final installment of our 3 part series on managing your signal to noise ratio, we present a handy-dandy identification guide:
How to identify which species of agency worker is which, based on their responses to the question: “how do you manage your information and inspiration sources?”
Systematic vs organic.
The more systematic, the less likely they are to be an art director.
Interactive Director: “I use a bunch of things to curate information. Here, I’ll draw you a map.”
Art Director: “The Interactive Director tried to show me the interactive tools, but it was way too organised for me.”
Comprehensive vs selective.
The more selective, the higher likelihood they’re on the accounts team.
Principal: “It could be that my time is just so crunched that even my RSS feed feels like a lot of noise. Someone once said to me that relying too much on my RSS feed would narrow my vision of the world to those who I deemed the best curators, and that was the equivalent of creative suicide. So, I’ve instead taken the advice of another woman—a creative director from a big ad agency in Brazil—who said the three keys to creativity are travel, taking public transportation when you travel, and giving yourself permission to do good ol’ fashioned surfing every day. So, I use my RSS feed, but also keep an email folder of “to-reads” which are random newsletter stuff. I read one article then follow any of the links within that article to see where it takes me.
Art Director: “Whatever you are doing, you can’t put your energy into one source or method of creative inspiration ever. It’s a mix of everything you do and read and observe. If you ask me this same question in one month, I can pretty much guarantee that I have a revised way of seeking out inspiration. Ultimately, I think you have to keep flexible and keep massaging whatever you are doing, taking new paths, talking to different people, looking at different perspectives. If you stay in the same pattern, then that is surely creative suicide.”
Account Exec: “Bookmarks. First introduced in 1997 as a part of the IE version 4 ‘active desktop’ bookmarks have been around a while. They do the trick for me.
Traditionalist vs early adopter
The more paper involved? That would be a writer.
Copywriter: “If I like something, I write it down. Or rip it out. And stick it in a notebook. I like paper. And sticky notes.”
Designer: “I think everyone should have an iPad.”
