There has been much written about the idea that constraints push creativity.
These constraints can take many different forms – time and money being the most prevalent.
You could also consider constraints around the parameters of the project, materials used, marketing channel restrictions, and more.
I really liked the quote below from a Harvard Business Review article:
“Constraints provide focus and a creative challenge that motivates people to search for and connect information from different sources to generate novel ideas for new products, services, or business processes.” – Harvard Business Review
My Story
Over the years, I’ve seen the benefits of constraints.
The most significant were on two projects outside of work.
The first was one where I took on a creative upcycling project. Each week for a year I took “parts” from beer & wine packaging (caps, glass, labels, etc.) and reimaged them into jewelry inspired by the brand. Some weeks were really challenging, but often the results for those weeks were some of my favorites. The constraints pushed me to think beyond what I had done before and explore new techniques.
The second example is my Photo of the Day project. I’ve been participating in a photo group for over 5 years now. Each day, there is a prompt to take a photo with a specific theme or technique. Some days are easier than others. Having this focused constraint has pushed the creativity of my photography and taught me many more techniques using both my DSLR and iPhone cameras and associated processing.
I want to explore how I could put more constraints around my professional work.
Presentations have slide count constraints.
Projects have time constraints.
What else could be constrained to make the work better?
Your Turn
Do you find yourself to be more creative when constraints are well defined?
Can you think of a recent project where constraints created better ideas?
How could you apply constraints to something you are working on right now?