Pen to paper.

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Since day one of working in advertising I’ve been trying to figure out what the best way to put an idea down on paper is, both for myself during the concepting phase and later on how to show ideas internally before they go into design.

It’s funny how important it is to have a good pen, and a piece of paper that you want to use. Grabbing any old layout pad is fine, but if you’ve got the time it’s nice to put your ideas down in a way you actually enjoy looking at. I think everyone has their own favourite way of getting down their thoughts, whether that’s with a certain set of stationary, slapping post-it notes on the wall, or sticking them in a word doc.

When I’m coming up with concepts I like to use a small unlined Moleskine and a fine Bic ball point pen in blue ink. And the Star Wars Moleskine is obviously the best one you can get. I don’t sketch much, so I just put down a name for the idea and write it out. When I do sketch I end up thinking it looks shit and start another page to make myself feel better. Black ink is okay, but I read a study that showed using blue ink helped people think more creatively, which I’m not sure I really believe but once I’ve heard about something like that I can’t not try it. I’ve got no idea whether it works or not.

I tend to think in strands, so I’ll dance around the brief in my head a put down a couple of ideas quickly then start a new page with a fresh set of thoughts. From those initial concepts you can pick out a couple of insights and territories to explore further.

When it comes to showing planners and account managers your work it’s fairly obvious that you need to give them a name, scamp, description of the idea. But I like to try and stick in a ‘headline’. We’re always trying to come up with ideas that can create culture, that stick in people’s imaginations and become part of their every day lives. That’s always the aim. So to get across the ‘giveashitability’ of a concept it can help to throw in a newspaper headline, preferably from the Sun.

It doesn’t always work, but I prefer hand drawn scamps, a simply stylised title, and Courier New as the font (like you’re reading now) for the description. When you show someone an idea there is a clash between their objectivity and subjectivity where they define the quality of your idea. It only takes a second or two. If there’s too much happening on the page it can throw up road blocks that get in the way of your concept. Like if you’ve photoshopped the visuals together and not followed brand guidelines, 9/10 times the first thing they’ll say is “they don’t use that shade of red”. It keeps it conceptual, which helps them understand the core of the idea, then they use their own imagination to see it in their head.