This list will help designers working in identity design create a strong and solid project. However, it will also be useful for other designers—just replace the examples with your own.

1. Get Yourself Interested in the Project. Create artificial points of interest and make your body react to them. If you are triggered by problems, flawed solutions, or imperfections, bring them into the project. There should be an internal resistance growing—you need to care.
2. Describe the Project in Broad Strokes. Imagine the big picture: what do you want to say, why, and to whom? Focus on major forms and messages. Remove all details and nuances—do not look for specifics on how the project will be executed yet. Look for similar problems in other fields (science, music, education), put yourself in the shoes of a business owner, or invent competitors.
3. The Project’s Neural Network. Take a walk, get distracted, play some games. Right now, your brain needs to absorb incoming data, process it, and start thinking in the right direction. You will begin to notice fragments of your surroundings that you never paid attention to before, but that now become relevant to the project. This is how the project’s unique neural network forms.
4. Trying On the Concept. Give your brain small exercises, trying to integrate concepts from other fields into your created neural network. Open yourself to a broader experience. — What if this project were like a film? — What if my project were like a musical composition, with beats, syncopations, and melismas? — What if I applied the concept of phasing, like in dreams? — What about the rules of language learning?

• Did you design the letter “A” as a logo? Okay. But how is it different from others?
• How does the context change around your letter “A”? How does the letter behave?
• Why will your “A” sell the product better than a “B”?
• Has someone else drawn a better “A”?
• Why are you fixated on a letter when it could be a number?

1. Fragmentation. Our brains cannot efficiently process large clusters of information for long periods. Break the project into smaller, shorter tasks, each with its own concept and clear outcome.

   • This week, I search for metaphors and forms.

   • Next week, I work on typography and layout.

     Make sure all these fragments remain connected by a common principle and idea.

2. A Complex Project Should Be Easy to Explain. If you cannot explain your project clearly and concisely, it means you have not fully figured it out yet. Your understanding should encompass all its elements, leaving nothing hanging outside. Let your colleagues ask unexpected and sharp questions.

3. Experiment. After systematic work, conduct a series of experiments, adding unexpected metaphors and solutions to the project. Your letter “A” might suddenly grow wings or a tail, strengthening the original metaphor. Maybe you turn the “A” upside down? The brain gets too attached to the neural network it creates, and it needs to be occasionally pushed outside of it.

4. Put the Finished Project Aside for a While. Let go of all attachments, loosen the reins as if you have finished and submitted it. Break the brain’s fixation on the project. Come back after some time and imagine this project was done 10 years ago. What’s wrong with it?