Why constraints made me creative (not crazy)

I used to believe building a brand was about having all the right pieces.

The big budget. The glossy logo. The tagline that sounds like it belongs on a billboard in Times Square.

I thought if I just had those things, my brand would soar. People would line up. Investors would call. My LinkedIn would explode.

But reality had other plans.

That day, my team and I had nothing but a whiteboard, a clock ticking way too fast, and a client who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else. We were supposed to deliver a new brand concept in a week.

My plan was to impress, but my obstacle?

Everything.

No money for fancy designers. No time for endless brainstorms. No room for mistakes.

I panicked. Then I did what most people do when they panic: I tried to make it perfect. I fiddled with fonts. I obsessed over colors. I wrote and rewrote the “About Us” until it sounded like a robot wrote it. (This was back when there was no ChatGPT, so I get credit)

Each change made things worse.

The more I tried to control, the less I created.

The brand felt fake. My energy tanked. The client noticed and I blamed our constraints.

If only we had more time. If only we had a bigger budget. If only, if only, if only.

But then, somewhere between my fifth coffee and the fourth round of edits, I gave up on perfect.

I asked a new question: What’s the one story that matters to the person who needs us most?

I stopped building a brand for everyone. I built for one.

We sketched a logo with a pen that barely worked. We wrote copy that sounded like us, not a committee. We showed rough ideas to real users and listened, really listened, to what they said.

Something shifted.

People connected to the mess. They liked the honesty. The brand wasn’t shiny, but it was alive.

That’s when I learned: Constraints aren’t the enemy. They’re the secret ingredient.

They force you to focus. They make you creative. They strip away the fluff and leave you with what matters.

Pick one person, solve their problem with what you have, ship the rough draft, learn fast, and fix what matters.

Turns out, you don’t need a parade to build a brand. You just need a story that feels true, and the guts to share it before it’s perfect.

Now, whenever I see a blank whiteboard, I remember that silent room. I remember how much I wanted status. How much I wanted to impress. And how much better it felt to connect.

Try it. Build with what’s in front of you. See what happens.

P.S.

And if you want a shortcut to building brands that actually connect, you can join me inside The Brand Engine, it’s like having a toolbox for making your brand work, minus the guesswork and the headaches.

I’ll walk you through the messy parts, the simple parts, and the parts nobody talks about.

Curious? Take a peek at The Brand Engine course here. If you like learning by doing (or just want to see my napkin sketches), this is for you.

— shashank

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