Principles of PROCEDE® #6 - Keep Things Simple

PROCEDE is our method for developing creative strategies and exploring greater possibiliites™ and, sure, it’s part of our marketing mantra and may be seen as self-serving in this venue, but its ideas are tried and true… and I’m happy to be sharing with you.

Eliminate the superfluous: Unnecessary details can put the brakes on innovative thinking. Better to focus on big picture up front. The details will follow naturally.

We’ve proven this over and over again. Before you put pencil to paper or pixel to screen, eliminate the detail. We agree on what we call “minimum requirements” for design development. It’s far from everything the client asks for in the brief. It’s the elements we see as most important to visualization. It might be as simple as a product name and tag line, but usually no more than three items and as few as one. If you’ve got more than three, force one out.

This is a very difficult change in approach for many, yours truly included. Yet, when no longer encumbered with the task of managing hierarchy and detail that just doesn’t matter for now, creativity flourishes.

Try this technique on your next first-phase design development and be amazed at the exponential improvements in output. Let us know how it goes for you.

There are 3 comments so far | Post a comment

Richard Bird | Oct 21, 2005

Thank you, Tom.

Narain | Oct 22, 2005

Great. I think it is a different approach to look into design. Let me try it out.

Richard Bird | Feb 3, 2006

We’ve just delivered our second creative presentation on a very intense co-branding program for a technology and consumer-product company joint venture.

Everybody wants more and more detail without compromise. As everyone at R.BIRD continues to add the details, indecision at our clients’ camps grows exponentially.

Remember the principle: Less is More. Reduction demands commitment to what is really important. The rest will naturally follow.

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