Week Links #15

Hire only “the best”
Hire super stars to work with you because that’s the only way to drive real change and sustainable innovation.

Ad agencies don’t represent the country we live in – and this needs to change
As a creative leader, one of my ambitions is, obviously, to find new ways of doing things; reshaping products and services that might be perceived as tired, haggard, boring. In order to achieve creative greatness today, we must strive for greater inclusivity in our teams – not simply focus on diversity.

8 WRITING TIPS FOR DESIGNERS, DEVELOPERS, AND OTHER NON-WRITERS
Even if you’re not a writer by trade, you’ve probably written something at some point today—an email, a text message, a lunchbox note. Everybody writes.

Four psychology principles every UX designer should know
There’s a darn good reason why there are so many PSYCHOLOGY+UX articles floating around. User experience design has its conceptual roots in cognitive and behavioural psychology.

Type in Couture
In an interview with rock critic Lester Bangs in the 1980s, writer and punk musician Richard Hell said, “If you invent yourself, you love yourself. The idea of inventing yourself is creating the most ideal image that you could imagine.”

Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation
Ask a bunch of people who subscribe to design thinking exactly what it is, and you will get a bunch of answers, each of which varies just enough from the last one to give you the answer you’re looking for: There is no single, unifying, common definition of design thinking.

Why Design Thinking Works
Whether you are experienced with design thinking or have only just heard of it—strap in because we are kicking off a series covering many aspects of design thinking.

Extreme Constraints and Curiosity Lead to True Innovation
Boundaries force you to find truly new solutions. For your next project, remove a given like a big budget or access to electricity to push your ideas further.

Now That I’m 50, Here’s What I’ve Learned About Achieving Success That Escaped Me at 25
Hitting the big fifty requires reflection almost as a duty. So I focused mine on what I’ve learned about success since being half my current age.

8 strategies to embrace the future of content marketing
Just a few years ago, you could post 1, 2, 3, 300 blog posts on your website; furiously direct traffic to them through all your social platforms; amass zillions of inbound links; target a bunch of keywords; aaand easily rank on Google. Controlling your message and gaining customers was (well, almost) a piece of cake. No longer.

Ad Legend George Lois: Magazine Covers Are “Trash Today”
The iconic designer didn’t mince words in a recent interview, arguing that technology is “helping to destroy creativity in advertising.”

Your Own Personal Time Machine
5 Simple Ways to Recover the Lost Art of Note Taking

THE FRIDAY FIVE: GREATEST COPYWRITERS
As S3’s copywriter, I’ve had some pretty challenging briefs during my two years at the agency. Being asked to pick the five greatest copywriters of all-time, however, stands out as my most challenging one yet. After all, how do we define not just great copywriters, but the greatest copywriters?