I’ve grown to dislike the phrase “thinking outside the box.” When I was at Microsoft, that phrase was tossed around constantly, especially when it came to the type of people we wanted to hire. (“Mike, when you’re interviewing people for our team, make sure they can think outside the box.”) Like any over-used phrase, hearing it over and over begins to annoy you after a while and it loses it’s impact.
But the phrase popped back into my head recently as I was reading an article about creativity. The article made reference to that classic 9 Dots puzzle which literally forces you to think outside the box to find the solution.
Like most people, I’ve known the solution to that puzzle for a long time. But for whatever reason, the article I was reading, along with the puzzle it referenced and the discussion about “thinking outside the box”, hit me in a fresh way.
As designers (or copywriters) it seems a luxury to have any decent amount of time to really think through a new project before digging into it. Most clients, especially in the direct market arena, need it yesterday.
But I’ve been making an extra effort to come up with at least one “outside the box” idea for a project. It doesn’t mean I’ll use any of the ideas I come up with. I just want to enforce the habit of thinking of possibly off-the-wall ideas for each project I do.
Let me give you a simple example. I’ve been working on some sales letters for various clients. On a recent one, I tried to think of something different to do. The first thought was to lay out the sales letter horizontally. In other words, instead of a traditional 8.5 x 11 inch sales letter layout, why not make it 11 x 8.5 inches?
Well, here’s why not: It’s a rotten idea!! And it didn’t take more than a second to figure that out. But that’s OK. The exercise is to come up with ideas. Some will work, some won’t.
If you’ve ever been a part of a group brainstorming session, you understand the goal. Everyone tosses out any idea that comes to mind without filtering it for fear that other people will think it’s a dumb idea. Smart brainstormers know that a bad idea can be just the nudge that someone else in the group needs to mold it into a better idea.
As a freelancer typically working alone, you’ll need to not only come up with some “dumb” ideas, but also be the one to take the time to shape them into something that will work.
While the idea of a landscape layout sales letter wasn’t good, the idea could work for something like an annual report. In fact, as I investigated it a bit, there are quite a number of annual reports that have been done in landscape mode.
So my idea wasn’t going to fly for the sales letter, but it was an idea worth filing away for another type of project. The point here is to get yourself into the habit of coming up with at least one new idea (if not more) for your projects no matter how much of a rush you’re in. Then see how it might work into current or future projects.