When e-mailing back and forth trends and idea news they saw on the internet got to being to tedious, Piers Fawkes and Simon King launched PSFK.com, a site that actively reports on trends, ideas, inspirations, creative ideas in popular, consumer and business culture. I invited Piers Fawkes to do a Q&A with Limité and here’s what he has to say…

Name / Alias: Piers Fawkes

Where are you originally from? I was born in London.

What do you currently do for a living?

I  run a trends and innovation company called PSFK. We publish a rather popular website PSFK.com and produce books like the Good Ideas in 2009 report, we hold events like the Good Ideas Salon London, we provide consultancy to companies like Apple and Target, and we connect companies looking for quick advice to experts through the Purple List. I’m also co-founder of a global coffee morning called Likemind.

What drove you to start PSFK?

When I moved to New York in 2004 I wanted to write about the things I was seeing here. I also asked my friend Simon King to write about the things he was seeing in Europe. PF and SK put all their findings on a site called PSFK.com

PFSK’s mantra seems to be “Inspiration to make things better” – what or how do you envision our world?

We are a rather subjective trends and innovation company. We don’t want to be cool hunters, we don’t want to be the most fashion forward. We want to inspire our readers, our audience, our clients and the world to make things better.

Better is a rather good word – it can mean more socially conscious and it can mean just make you smile.

You seem to have a particular interest in Web/Tech – do you have strong tech connections? Are you just interested in web? Do you feel this industry holds more promise than others?

We cover everything from art to music to technology and everything in between. If yout hink we have a tech bias it’s probably because of the way we seem to be rushing towards this sort of sense of singularity. How technology is merging with our lives. You can’t talk about the future without being aware of it.

What inspires you in your daily pursuit of life?

Inspiring people to make things better, calling out people who make things worse.

Top 5 songs of your play-list right now?

Most recently I’ve been dancing in my living room as the sun rises to Cut Copy with my 1 year old son Cy in my arms wishing he woke up later.

What books are you currently reading?

I read the content of over 700 RSS feeds every morning. Then I consume a hell of a lot of magazines.  It’s hard to get motivated to then browse a book which will take a couple of weeks to read. It’s a pity because I miss fiction – but in this time of life I am all about knowing a little about a lot. Oh… I do listen to audio books on my walk to work. Boring business ones.

What new projects are you building on right now?

In a few weeks time in London we have Good Ideas Salon – a conference to inject positivity into the creative business atmosphere – www.goodideassalon.com

After that happens, I’m hoping to run smaller 2 hour salons all around the world with the help of friends of PSFK.  I’ll take some of the learnings from Likemind to help us.

I am in the middle of rebuilding a site called The Purple List that connects experts to companies.

We are producing two books Snapshot China where we research 12 tier 2 and tier 3 cities in the country. We are also going to produce a Snapshot Brooklyn book too – to follow on after our San Francisco book – www.psfk.com/snapshot.

What’s the most memorable moment of your career thus far?

Walking in this morning and working with a team of 12 amazing PSFKers.

Favorite local spot you feel people need to check out?

The airport. Get on a plane and go somewhere else – expand your mind through travel people.

What super hero powers do you wish you had?

That there were 2 of me. There’s so much to do….

2009 will be another year of more social networking sites still coming out the woodworks, are there any particular sites you are keeping a eye on?

The Purple List!

With the current economic downfall, how do you think advertising will evolve in with cooping with huge losses in marketing dollars?

I think there will be a lot of innovation – but it looks like a lot of things, companies, products and services that we appreciate will fail. Hopefully the people behind them will come back with better and stronger ideas.

What do you think 09′ holds as far as trends?

Read our book! Good Ideas in 2009! www.goodideas2009.com!

Define success?

Someone telling me that they took something we wrote and used it to motivate change at work, at home or at play.