I know you’re meant to say that the start of a project is exciting, but for me that’s the most daunting part. I think it comes down to the fear of uncertainty inherent in any creative project.
However, with this fear comes the potential to turn nerves into a buzz of adrenaline. Armed with only a brief, a blank artboard, a creative process, and my intuition, it’s time to focus on finding the magic that turns the nerves into excitement.
So, where’s best to begin? What’s the first step in this creative process? And perhaps even more challenging, how do you recognise and trust that exciting moment when you’ve created something with the potential to be truly groundbreaking?
Over the years I have developed a process that works for me. This article covers a section of this process, focusing on three core principles.
First Principle: Ideation without judgement
When we start a brand project — let’s assume, for the sake of brevity, that we have a solid brief, a clear understanding of the client and their audience, and a brand strategy — this is the time to start generating ideas that bring to life the brand’s point of difference in clear and innovative ways.
Sounds simple, right? Not quite.
For a designer, there’s always an impulse to rush into the process with the first idea we come up with. It’s understandable: We’re designers, and design is what we do. But we all know our first idea is unlikely to be the best. And in the unlikely event that it is, without something to compare it to, how do we know?
The key is to keep going, writing down or sketching every idea — even the ones that make us cringe. Encourage the people we’re working with to do the same. Don’t overthink it: refining the list and finding the potential winners is the job of Future-You. Make Future-You work hard.
Once we have exhausted all ideas, it’s good to lean into the things that feel a little scary. Scary is good. When things feel comfortable, it’s likely because we’ve seen them before. The real magic lies in the uncharted territory of those slightly nerve-racking ideas.
Don’t keep your ideas to yourself, share them with anyone who will listen — assuming your NDA has a little wiggle room. Talking about ideas helps us see if they hold water. It’s not just about the feedback we get; it’s about looking at our ideas in a different light, away from the screen, that clever interactive presentation, the notepad or those of our colleagues who already know the project inside-out.
This perspective shift can reveal gaps that need to be plugged or even uncover new ideas to be explored. And at the end of the day if you can’t explain your idea in words alone, it might need a little more work.
Second Principle: Iterate with joy and freedom
When we’re figuring out how to bring an idea to life, it can be tempting to just design two things and settle for the better one. We aim to avoid this at all costs. Instead, we explore our idea’s potential by executing it in as many different ways as we can think of.
Don’t spend ages on each thing — design fast and keep moving. Focus on the joy of creating without worrying about getting it right. The thinking is simple: one idea executed two ways is unlikely to lead to anything exceptional, whereas one idea executed a 100 ways means your chances of hitting the jackpot are far higher.
How do you know when you’ve struck gold? Zero in on the version that gives you a little jolt of electricity, turning the nerves into a rush of adrenaline. This is where intuition comes in. The only way I can explain it is that I want to look at it and know that’s the most exciting thing on the page.
Don’t overanalyse why it resonates — trust your instincts. Only after you’ve fully explored the potential of the concept should you evaluate whether it aligns with the project’s objectives. If it doesn’t, you can usually find small tweaks to align the design with those objectives. It’s much better to explore with freedom and without constraints.
Third Principle: Make it connected
Having found the thing that sparks our excitement, it’s time to see if it has the flexibility to work in all the places the brand needs to live, and communicate all the things we need it to communicate. This is the starting point of creating a connected system: finding the core unifying element and using that to design as many different things as possible.
Once we have found our core idea, the strongest piece, element or asset within our designs, it’s time to explore volume of expression. A connected brand needs to work at all scales, from the biggest, most expressive piece of advertising down to the most simple and singular element — from a billboard on Times Square to a favicon, and everything in between.
We start by boiling our idea down to its simplest form, then amplifying its expression to the fullest, identifying every opportunity in between the two for our idea to come to life, and removing anything that doesn’t speak to it.
Exploring the flex and volume of our idea enables us to create a connected brand system, free from unnecessary elements, with the ability to live everywhere it needs to, communicate every relevant message and stand the test of time.
Excitement, energy, and just the right amount of fear
The creative journey may be daunting, but with the help of a few guiding principles the path forwards can become a little clearer and hopefully more enjoyable. By understanding what goes into ideation, iteration, and systemisation, I believe we designers can equip ourselves with the tools needed to fill the blank artboard with exciting, meaningful design.
In essence, it’s not just about filling space but finding the magic that makes us excited, energised, and fills you with just the right amount of fear. The hope is that it will do the same for our clients and their customers too.
So, the next time you find yourself staring at that blank artboard, remember these principles — embrace the discomfort of the unknown, explore without constraint, and craft with purpose.
