The Houdini Solution Week – Day I: The Box Inside the Box

I once had a client who put so many restrictions on us creatively, I was convinced it was going to be pretty much impossible to do anything even remotely creative. At every turn it seemed like there was a roadblock of one kind or another. It was maddening.

And then, just as we were getting started on the project, our client called one day to say he’d just gotten a job with another company. We were ecstatic, figuring that surely the new client that was coming in to replace him couldn’t be any worse. Were we ever wrong. She imposed even more limitations than the previous guy. Suddenly, our original limitations didn’t seem all that bad by comparison.

From that experience I’ve since used this little exercise to put a particularly cramped conceptual environment into perspective. Here’s what you do. Draw a three-by-three-inch square on a sheet of paper or whiteboard. Write as many ideas as you can fit inside the lines.

Now draw a six-by-six-inch square. Inside this smaller square write down all the ideas you had in the first square and add as many new ones as you can fit. Finally, draw a twelve-by-twelve-inch square, writing down all the ideas in the six-inch square plus some even newer ones.

The twelve-inch square definitely has its limitations. But next to the three-inch square, it suddenly feels like you’re working in the Superdome. Try it. It works.