First Principles Thinking

Most design agencies build by analogy. They look at what other brands have done, change the colors, swap the font, and call it fresh. That gives you safe work. It doesn’t give you breakthrough work.

First principles thinking flips the process. Instead of asking, What does this logo look like compared to others? ask, What is a logo for? What’s the minimum job it must do? Then rebuild from there.

At our studio, we don’t start with “best practices.” We strip the problem to its physics. Attention spans. Human perception. Emotional triggers. Business goals. That’s the raw material. Everything else is decoration.

Example: A client says, “We need a website like Apple.” Analogy thinking copies Apple. First principles thinking asks: What makes Apple’s site effective? Clear hierarchy, ruthless simplicity, strong product focus. Then we rebuild it for the client’s reality instead of mimicking someone else’s solution.

If you want design that actually moves people, stop copying. Start questioning. Strip it down, find the truth, and build from there.

Note: Written with AI assistance, edited with human judgment, published with zero apologies.