I have just been taking a deeper look at the work of Jamie Wieck, who did the Don’t Play With Your Food plates in the previous post.
Not only is his body of work along a similar witty, clever and playful vein - of which there really isn’t enough in design, in my opinion - but his folio frames each idea with a simple question. For example, “Can the Queen be put to better use?” with regards to postcards and stamps (see above), or “How can a business card remain on a client’s desk long after receiving it?” and “Can something quintessentially English still be international?”.
It’s a great way to really focus on a creative solution to a problem and akin to the “sum up your story in a single line” approach in writing or coming up with a movie tagline (“In space, no one can hear you scream”) that sums the whole thing up.
The moral is, if you can’t do it in a single question or sentence, then you probably aren’t clear about what you’re doing.
All images stolen from Jamie Wieck.