In a world where we are exposed to hundreds and thousands of images and ideas every day, I sometimes get a little overwhelmed by how much information is out there.

Social media such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Flickr, Facebook, as well as a multitude of creative blogs, national press, specialised press, advertising, street art, all form part of my daily visual stimulation. The internet has made it possible for me to know what’s cool in Berlin and hot in Brazil, and this is amazing and eye-opening.

But how do I prevent it all from cluttering my mind, since for any given project, I need to focus on the one really good idea…? The answer is, I look around me, and absorb the here and now. From a black and white polka dot facade near work to an old power station in the midst of a major transformation, a monogram hand-painted on a shop front to a quiet little garden centre tucked away off the King’s Road, these are all things I walk past every day. Making a conscious decision to really notice them helps me focus, and stops my mind frantically looking for inspiration everywhere.

In finding interest in the everyday, I feel reinvigorated. Beauty, ideas, humour – all are at arms’ length waiting for me to take my pick and inject them in my creative work one way or another.

This makes what I do very personal to me, and although our clients may not realise it when they receive their copy of an Annual Report we’ve designed for them, that special colour we had to get just right, might have just come from a label found in the Portuguese coffee shop up the road.

That feeling, when you find just under your nose the idea you’d been looking for, is priceless.