THE PRINCIPLE

Adapting what works is a worthwhile creative shortcut

People who work in advertising have what they call a ‘swipe’ file. That’s a collection of ads that have been effective and that serve as inspiration.

Your swipe file should contain good ideas and examples from your field of work or interest and from other fields. It’s from the latter that you are likely to get the best ideas that haven’t been used in your field.

Things you might put into your swipe file include:

• clippings of newspaper and magazine articles
• print ads that catch your attention
• notes about radio and television ads that seem particularly effective
• videos that have gone viral on YouTube and other video-sharing sites
• photos you’ve taken of window displays or signs
• posts you’ve copied from blogs
• links to effective websites.

Get into the habit of looking for and recording everything around you that is inspirational, well designed and effective. As well as giving you raw material for adapting these to your own projects, it will put you in a positive, creative state of mind.