Constraints make you creative; the idea quarantine waits for them.
technique — attributed to Ruud Janssen
Janssen's Event Canvas process treats constraints as the creative instrument. Time available. Money available. Expected revenue. Once all the restrictions are on the table, the team goes back to what he calls the idea quarantine: a place where ideas have been dumped during the discovery phase, before constraints were known. The ideas get held up against the design frame. Every idea may get a number of jobs done within the constraints. The technique inverts the standard creative process, which treats constraints as the enemy of imagination. Janssen's version uses constraints as the editing instrument that turns a pile of unfiltered ideas into a designed event. The constraints do not limit creativity; they direct it.
For event designers, product designers, and creative directors thinking about how to use constraints productively. The technique is most useful as a frame against the instinct to brainstorm without limits.
constraints, idea-quarantine, design-frame, creativity