Thinking Inside the Box

You hear the phrase "think outside the box" all the time. I know what people mean when they say that. They mean, "come up with something innovative and different."

While it's a good idea to innovate, when it comes to design, I don't think it's helpful to abandon the box altogether. In my opinion, the best design happens when there are parameters (or boundaries) present that give the creative process some direction. Otherwise, if there are no boundaries, the final design can be confusing and unnecessarily risky.

A better question to ask, would be, "do we have the right box?" Do we have the right strategy? 

In this scenario, brand strategy is the box which informs the design.