Index cards.

When I was a young copywriter at Ally & Gargano over 20 years ago, the guy who ran the mailroom was a bit of a legend. His name was Kiki Fernandez and I think he had been with the agency since it opened in the early 60s.

In any event, I've always loved office supplies and often at night, when most everyone else had left the agency I would head back to the mailroom and attend to my myriad stationery needs. When I did so, nine times out of 10, Kiki was there and I would ask him questions about days of yore in the agency business.

One time I asked Kiki about a writer who had worked at Ally whose work I had always admired. Kiki told me that this particular writer had tried for years to get into Ally and had succeeded only after many tries. He told me that the people in the agency in charge of creative recruiting--the people, therefore, pressed with keeping the agency great, kept an index card on every creative they met. If there were no immediate positions open, they flagged the creatives they liked for later.

Creating an "index card," of people you like seemed to me to be a very good idea. We don't really do index cards these days, but the form doesn't matter, the function does. And this is a practice I've always tried to follow. To remember people who I judge as good, different or outstanding.

It's good to have these people nearby when an opportunity arises.

Like this morning, for instance, when I'm slated to talk to an animator whose work I first saw seven years ago.