In creative industries, we’ve inherited a long-standing ritual: present the client with three completely different design directions. One safe. One moderate. One “off the wall.”
It’s been happening for decades.
But here’s what I think:
Three wildly different directions isn’t strategy. It’s guesswork.
Good strategy narrows the design field. Bad strategy widens it.
And when designers (or agencies) show radically different concepts, what they’re really admitting is: “We’re not sure what the problem is, so here are three stabs at it.”
Clients often feel reassured by choice. Agencies feel protected by offering it. But strategic clarity isn’t about volume, it’s about direction.
When your design options are unrelated, you’re not presenting strategy-driven solutions.
You’re presenting bets.
Real strategy doesn’t produce a scattershot of possibilities.
It produces a family of ideas connected by the same truth.
When your concepts sit in the same universe, same logic, same intention, same strategic foundation that’s when you know you’re onto something. If you reach the concept phase and honestly feel:
“Any of these answers the brief. Any of these speaks to the strategy.” then you’ve done it right.
You’ve created alignment across thinking, design, execution, and outcome. And that’s the goal.
If you’ve ever been presented with three options labelled something like:
…it’s usually a sign of one of two things:
It’s a reveal, not of creativity, but of uncertainty.
Great designers don’t need to hedge their bets.
They don’t need one idea “just in case.”
They don’t need to create a scattergun of styles to see what sticks.
They need clarity.
And clarity comes from strategy.
There’s an old advertising adage I love:
The narrower the focus, the more creative you can be.
Constraints aren’t restrictions; they’re launch pads.
A focused brief gives designers freedom, the freedom to explore deeply, not widely.
It allows them to push, stretch, and elevate ideas within a meaningful framework, instead of drifting across disconnected territories.
When we tighten the brief, you don’t get less creativity.
You create a space for it to flourish.
Great brands aren’t built on “safe / moderate / wild.”
They’re built on direction.
Strategy creates clarity.
Design amplifies it.
Execution reinforces it.
Three smartly related directions?
That’s a sign of strength.
Three shots in the dark?
That’s a sign to go back to the brief.
It’s important for us to acknowledge and recognise that where we live, work and play is on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We respect and honour Elders, past, present and future, and acknowledge their Native Title rights to Country, which holds the stories, traditions and living culture of Wurundjeri people.
