Think Outside the Box? Just What The Heck Does That Mean?

For years and years I’ve had students approach me with this very question. “My other instructors keep telling me to ‘think outside of the box’ just what does this mean? It makes no sense to me!!” Of course the obvious connotation is just “produce something unexpected” but to a design student it’s not that cut and dry. Students are typically insecure and worried about producing work that misses the mark and asking them to step outside of their comfort zone is a big deal. So how do we as instructors (or even as a Creative Director) explain and demonstrate this?

One popular assignment I’ve done in class for the last 10 years is that I ask the students what their favorite band or musician is at the moment. I then ask them to design a poster or t-shirt graphic for the artist in a completely contrasting style. For example, if they said they liked Metallica I would have them produce a concert/tour poster for the band in a country and western style. If they said they liked Justin Timberlake we would then produce a death metal inspired poster for the pop singer. The great thing about this exercise is that the students would REALLY like their final piece. As we found out, the brand of the band (sorry) shined through our attempts at diverting their personal image of the musician and still communicated well. Their eyes opened to the possibility of communicating through contrast.

Happy Fish Logo

I have had many assignments throughout the years that were challenging but some much more than others. I recently asked my class to design a logo for an a local pet store. The store’s main focus was on the sale of exotic fish and custom aquariums. The major hurdle was that they could NOT use any representation of an aquatic animal, plant, coral or make use the color blue in any shape or form. The inital moaning and groaning was deafening. The result were very unique and original logos. Where they the best solution? Some yes and some no. The point is to get the student outside of their comfort zone so they can say “Hey, it’s not so bad out here!”. By approaching learning this way students are able to expand their comfort zone while still providing viable solutions to a graphical or interactive problems.

To me, thinking outside of the box has always meant “contrast”. To produce something unexpected you need to first think of it’s complete opposite. Inhale the obvious and breath out the unexpected. There are varying degrees in which to do this but the end result is the same. Contrast is what attracts us to virtually everything we find worth sharing and worth communicating. It’s everywhere in popular culture from movies and TV show to art and design. Let’s look at some familiar examples.

Music:

Weezer

Weezer’s “Pork and Beans” is a great example of taking some of the most popular internet “celebrities” and have them lip sync their song. Many of these “celebrities” are known for their bad performances so the contrast here is pretty obvious.

Weezer – Pork And Beans from universalmusicgroup on Vimeo.

Weird Al

Weird Al has done nothing but contrast his nerdy persona into multiple personalities his entire career. By taking a popular “gangsta rap” song and re-imagining it for the Amish world, Weird Al shows us that just when you thought you saw it all… your not even close. One of his most popular songs, “White & Nerdy” follows the same formula that has worked for him over and over again in the past and most certainty will in the future.

Other notables: The Beastie Boys, Beyoncé, Danger Mouse, Madonna, Kanye West, etc.

Art:

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was the master of contrast in art. His worked as probably sparked more arguments over “what is art” than anyone else since Pollock and Picasso. His brilliant view of the world of consumerism pushed his creations into the absurd and forever changed the way we all look at graphics vs. art. He contrasted what people were seeing everyday in popular culture into high art. Hence the title “Pop Art”.

Andy Warhol Quote From Wikipedia: “What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.”

Dadaism

Of course I’m going to go there and why not? Dadaism had a big effect on art and graphics in the twenty century. Straight out of Wikipedia:

Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. Dada activities included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals; passionate coverage of art, politics, and culture were topics often discussed in a variety of media. The movement influenced later styles like the avant-garde and downtown music movements, and groups including surrealism, Nouveau Réalisme, pop art, Fluxus and punk rock.

Dada was truly one of the first “multimedia” arts that embraced all channels and allowed for true and uninhibited exploration in art.

Bansky

This video should explain what you need to. If you don’t have time then this quote from him should explain. “Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it.” Bansky.

If you haven’t heard of Bansky or seen any of his work then I suggest you do so. Now. For fun check out Poster Boy as well.

Other notables: Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Shepard Fairey, Jeffrey Koons etc…

Movies:

Movies with contrasting plots and storyline usually make it to the top of the heap. Don’t believe me? What if Harry Potter knew he was a great wizard from the beginning of the movie? How about if we knew Darth Vader was Luke’s father before we saw the first Star Wars movie? Did you guess they never actually left Earth? What if we knew Bruce Willis was dead the whole time? In creative writing is referred to as “tension” or “conflict”. Main characters must change in the course of a story to make it a story thereby creating conflict and contrast.

Other notables: Pulp Fiction, Lawrence of Arabia, SAW, Tron, Slumdog Millionaire, Weird Science, Taxi Diver, Forrest Gump, The Wrestler,  any David Lynch film and a ton more…

These are just a few examples of communicating though contrast in popular culture. How about you? What examples can you share in regards to “thinking outside of the box”?