Creativity in the face of constraint

Designers don’t design for the past, they design for the future. It’s why doubling down on positivity and creativity is Taxi Studio’s philosophy in the face of Covid-19. With brands fighting on all fronts to ensure that their businesses remain relevant, it’s those who BeMore.FearLess™ who will discover opportunities in adversity through willingness to experiment, and being open to new ideas rather than succumbing to the paralysis of fear.

So how do we remain creative when faced with constraint? And how do you tell the difference between what we feel we should be doing versus what will be the right thing to do?

At the heart of design thinking is the spirit of resourcefulness; it identifies problems within problems and explores, builds, prototypes and validates solutions for the ever-changing world. It’s this attitude that ensures we keep our horizons high, and our options open and can be the real difference between thriving and not surviving.

Looking back to events of similar magnitudes, we know that constraint can be the mother of inspiration; 

Kotex started life after the First World War, when what was known as medical gauze was repurposed as a sanitary product by Army nurses.

The Spanish Civil War was the catalyst for chocolate brand M&Ms. It was the brainchild of Forrest Mars Sr who saw soldiers eating candy-coated chocolate, designed to prevent melting in the sun.

In the face of the 2008 Financial Crisis AirBnB and Uber both took existing business models and reimagined them to not only disrupt the status quo of their categories, but also provide a valuable income stream for individuals.

Over the past few weeks we’ve seen a raft of resourceful responses to Covid-19. Fragrance brands repurposing production lines, food brands hosting virtual hangouts, and global beer giants digging deep to live their brand purpose, and whilst it’s too soon to see the impact of these acts on consumers, using creativity to help people can be nothing but good news, not only for the global population but a brand's future growth. 

And if it’s not about growth? Take a leaf out of 17-year-old Avi Schiffman’s book. His website ncov2019.live was designed to help track the real global numbers of Covid-19 which attracted an alleged $8m bid from a media company wanting to get access to his 30m site visitors. His response? A selfless ‘thank you but no’. We love it.