A question I often ask myself is, would I start blogging if I only became aware of its existence today? When I began 3 years ago, blogging was still in its infancy but nonetheless popular; now it’s huge. I have a friend who was desperate to start a blog a few months back. I dared to ask, “Why? What message do you want to get across, what do you want to say or illustrate?” The answer was, “I just want to blog, everyone’s doing it.” It made me feel a little sad and almost devalued what I love to do. So it led me to search and poke my nose around a little to see what’s out there that’s new. There is a fair proportion of horrendous stuff – random streams of incoherent thought but I suppose therein lies the joy of a blog; it can be whatever the blogger wants it to be. It doesn’t have to be directed or dictated by an editor or advertisers etc. I eventually stumbled upon or was recommended a few new (well new to me) blogs that I thought I would share with you.

The first is Jump! the tag-line is, “When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears.” The blog is a collection of people doing just that, jumping and seemingly dropping their guard at the same time. Watching people lose their inhibitions in such an unadulterated manner means you can’t help but muster a smile; each shot seemingly filled with happiness.

The Annotated Weekender – doodling all over The Guardian’s Weekend magazine. The name says it all. An illustrator scribbles all over The Guardian’s supplement. It sounds simple but it works and the hilariously witty comments made, make it all the more fun.

Draw Serge!– An illustrative tribute to the late, great Gainsbourg. A beautiful little blog. I know I have mentioned this before but I feel it’s worthy of a second promotion. Jonathan Edwards “curates” this little collection of sketches of Serge.

I couldn’t write this post without mentioning the musings of Colin McDowell. His offering is intelligent blogging at its best. He writes so eloquently and coherently that I often feel I am not worthy enough to comment. It is a MUST read for anyone even remotely interested in the industry. The comments his post elicits are often worth their weight in gold too.

What all these blogs have in common is they fill a gap in the market. They offer something quirky or fresh that the blogging industry hasn’t yet seen or isn’t yet saturated with. Many bloggers repeat what’s already been posted, rehash others’ ideas but this originality is a breath of fresh air and a welcome break from the norm. A fellow blogger (who knows who she is) recently cleared her blog-roll. She described the feeling in almost cathartic terms and I can easily imagine how it felt. On the note of re-hashing; if you are sat reading this and seething in anger as it was you that recommended one of the above blogs to me, please email me and I will name check your greatness!