Sometimes getting to simple takes a while.

When I was in college professors continually made the point that ‘a good concept can be sketched on a cocktail napkin’. Simultaneously the Mac was finding its way onto art directors’ desktops. Suddenly sketches began to go out of style. Instead, burgeoning designers could view millions of images and ads and content and literally ‘borrow’ images for use in their own work. From hand-rendered fonts we got access to hundreds, then thousands of options. We could easily try out numerous design stunts and tactics distressing type, adding gradients and creating amazing digital effects on images.

About this time the old guard in advertising began to express concern that conceptual quality was on the decline. Young writers and art directors were accused of overemphasizing stylistic elements and spending too little time finding really good, original ideas.

The original advertising model was an additive process. We’d start with sketches. We’d start by coming up with the top of mind stuff everyone comes up with – then struggle, sometimes for days – for the harder concepts. We then would add layers of complexity working through the body copy, the image, the layout etc. Each stage was an added layer of scrutiny that brought dimension to the idea.

Digital technology collapsed and cut short the additive process. Suddenly ideas were as often born from a cool image or some digital doodling. Today we’re all bludgeoned with millions of stimuli. When we sit down to have ideas now, they are born the product of a million influences and are rendered in digital tools that allow us to achieve in moments feats that were simply out of reach back in the day. The trouble is, peel back the tactical polish and often there’s little truly new to look at.

With so many places to draw reference from, and so little time to think things through (‘we need ideas to the client by 4pm’), we shortcut the ideation process and pile on layers of polish that disguise thin thinking.

I am increasingly finding it more useful today to adopt a reductive process for ideation. This is a consequence of one of the great challenges of our age – having too much information available. Life today demands simplicity not because people are too stupid to get layered thinking but because none of us has the time to focus on it.

At the office, we have worked hard on our operating construct Enterprise DNA (eDNA). Largely the brainchild of our CEO, I have proudly participated in refining and nurturing the idea down to its granular expressions – a process that has required some reductive ideation.

We have worked, literally for the better part of a year, refining eDNA. All the while, in the back of my mind I have had the goal of making eDNA something you could sketch for a friend on a cocktail napkin ring while grabbing a beer after hours. Setting this bar meant we suddenly had to stare down that 5”x5” piece of white paper and communicate an entire perspective on business using a ballpoint pen.

As with all ideation, the process was frustrating and there were numerous wrong turns along the way. It’s important to point out here that all of this was essential to the process and it all required time.  The outcome, however, was worth the investment. Today the resonating power of the eDNA concept resides in large part in its communicability. Every one of us in the company can sit down and walk someone through the idea without digital tools (crutches?) like Powerpoint, our website, sell sheets or Flash animations. In short, without the digital tools so often relied upon to make ideas look good.

As we all rush around trying to do our jobs faster and more efficiently, using the myriad of tools opportunities provided by computing, I would offer the model of the cocktail napkin as a litmus test for conceptual durability. If combined with the 4th Grade Dictionary test has helped steer me clear some of the snags that can hang up the conceptualization process.

In my mind, if I can sketch my idea on a small swatch of paper and make it meaningful to someone as I do it leads me to believe there might be some substance to it. Whether that idea requires eventually requires layers of polish is a project-specific matter, but if its powerful naked I am willing to bet it will be able to carry layers of complexity without being bogged down by them.

The sketch accompanying this post is our reduced eDNA schematic. Believe it or not, an entire holistic perspective on operating a business – any business – is captured in that little drawing. If you’re curious, I’d be happy to walk you through it. You buy me a beer, I’ll bring a ballpoint pen.