If In Doubt, Go For A Thinkabout.

Now, more than ever, creatives sit at their open-plan-desks, hunched over laptops, with headphones on.

Creative teams brainstorming seem to be getting rarer than U-matic tapes.

Chat.

Banter.

Dreaming.

All becoming distant notions of the day job.

But it’s only when you talk with your partner.

Finish each other’s sentences.

That your trains of thought crash, derail and become original ideas.

Ones that you would never have arrived at, on your own.

So, stop trawling the net for mash-up cultural thinking disguised as original ideas, whilst being constantly distracted by Pings and Emails.

And start getting out and about with your partner.

I always find going for a walkabout helps.

Take the briefing in the agency.

Then go to where the brand that you’re working on lives and the target market are.

Absorb yourself in it.

Ask the people about it.

Talk about what you think with your partner.

And record in a device of your choice.

Moleskines are great as are the new APPLE tools. Both capture drawing as well as writing.

Allowing you to think visually too.

The great Charles Inge was known for walking around Hyde Park whilst at Lowe.

By the time he had returned, he often had resolved the brief with another great idea.

The delightful Dougal Wilson likes to go for a run with the song he’s treating on at number 7 in his playlist. As he says…when the endorphins kick in the song plays and the ideas flow.

But most of us benefit from having a partner.

So, walking boots on.

The sun’s out.

Time for a Thinkabout.