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We’ve all been guilty of starting a design directly in our page layout app, beginning a website by cranking out code, or jumping straight to sketching full-size on the board our final illustration will be drawn on. Moving forward with anything without a plan will only lead to confusion, endless tweaks and backtracking, and sub-standard work. Here are a few ways you can nail an idea down:

Note: With slight modifications, this method can be applied to several different creative disciplines. Be creative with it and modify the approach so that it works best for you.

1. Define a Goal
What is your final destination? Put a well defined, one-sentence goal down so that you can use that as your creative mantra to get you through your project. And I’m not talking about merely writing “I want to make a logo.” That’s not going to cut it. Write something more specific, like “To create a solid, one-color mark that’s going to make me want to go out and buy a camera from a truly cool company.” Or maybe, “To design an 8-page brochure and effectively communicate the unique and exciting way CompanyX enriches lives with its prepaid phone products.” Or maybe you’ll be drawing a comic book cover, in which case your goal might be closer to, “To give a tease of the tension-filled thriller contained inside in a way that incorporates both the hero and the villain, while providing a clean, readable cover that will stand out on the crowded shelf.” Keep it as brief, informal, and clear as possible.

2. Word Lists
Let’s say we’re making that logo in the previous example: “…solid, one-color mark that’s going to make me want to go out and buy a camera from a truly cool company.” Well, what makes the company and their products cool? What is it about photography that is appealing? Who is our audience and are they average consumers or pros? A good way to find these answers is by doing a bit of research and making word lists. Write down and list as many relevant single words and short phrases as possible. Write down everything that pops into your head. For instance, ‘CAMERA’ brings to mind light, lens, film, digital, portrait, battery, color, magazine, speed, memories, art, journalism, etc… Once you have a good page or two of words, break out the highlighter and indicate which ones get you inspired. Mix and match words and see what kinds of ideas come out.

3. Sketch, Sketch, and Sketch
Once your word lists are done and cool, unique connections have been made, fill as many pages as possible with small, 2″ MAXIMUM sketches of your ideas. You could probably fit 20 sketches in a single, letter size page (double if you use the back side too). You’ll want to not spend more than 5-10 minutes thinking about or producing this first round of thumbnails– just sketch one up and move on to the next one. Pay attention to shapes that may play off one another, enhance, or add contextual insight to the message without muddling it. Once you find something that works, move to a clean page and sharpen some of the ideas up. By now, you should start seeing some pretty interesting things happen on paper.

4. Refine and Get Started
Pick 3-5 ideas and refine them. Get rid of extraneous elements and only keep what’s relevant to the message. See what tweaks you can make to further focus your ideas and clarify your message.

If you follow these steps before you get started on your project, then you’ll have armed yourself with some seriously effective tools and insight that will give you the edge you need to do better work.