The tennis tournament is unable to broadcast live matches on its YouTube channel. So it found a genius workaround: animations. The Wii style players follow all the same movements as their real-life counterparts, while the “whap” of the ball, chatter from the crowd, and commentary all remain authentic.
Joy of constraints
Forget creative freedom – the best ideas come from restrictions.
The football club had no choice but to get creative after high transfer spend, high wages, and the departure of Lionel Messi. The manager turned to players from its youth academy – La Masia – who lacked experience but made up for it with chemistry, having played together since they were kids. The team went on to win the league in 2023, reigniting the Barca emphasis on possession football, and establishing Gavi, Pedri, and Lamine Yamal as key parts of the side.
You’d think it would be impossible to make music without the ability to hear. But Ludwig Van Beethoven, arguably the finest composer of music the world has ever seen, became fully deaf at the age of 44. He taught himself to ‘hear’ with his body, placing his teeth on the keyboard and using lower notes that he could feel more clearly. During this period he composed some of his greatest works, including the Moonlight Sonata and his only opera Fidelio.
The unusual exterior of Disney Hall is iconic in the world of architecture, but it’s the result of strict limitations on internal design; Frank Gehry & Yasuhisa Toyota had to create a vineyard-style seating arrangement to make the audience feel close to the orchestra, and there are no boxes or balconies to avoid social hierarchies. As Toyota says, “surround style is more intimate.”
There were 236 different words in Dr. Seuss’s 1957 book The Cat in the Hat. So Bennet Cerf, Geisel’s publisher and co-founder of Random House, challenged Geisel to write a children’s book with only 50 different words, and they bet $50 on the outcome. In 1960, Dr Seuss delivered Green Eggs and Ham with exactly 50 different words. He won the bet and the book has sold ~10 million copies over its lifetime.
When Covid-19 effectively banned live concerts, the gaming platform Fortnite designed a beautiful virtual performance within the gameplay itself, recruiting rapper Travis Scott as the headline act. The groundbreaking event was attended by 12 million fans, with over 160 million watching the recording on YouTube.
Francis Mallmann insists on cooking with nothing but fire – using a wood oven rather than electric or propane grills. As cooking with fire is an incredibly slow process, this limitation might seem like an unnecessary delay. But Mallmann’s patience gives the food a uniquely tender and smoky taste.
In the 80’s, regulations meant Guinness could no longer say it was good for you. So the brand responded in style.
Jason Blum is the man behind the scariest – and most profitable – horror movies in the last two decades, like Paranormal Activity, Split, and Get Out. He actively talks about the importance of budget constraints in creating thrills; using a single home location where characters are most vulnerable, and casting silent extras because they are paid more if they talk.
An ad at the Superbowl is famously expensive – $7 million for 30 seconds – so water brand Liquid Death used this to their advantage. Instead of paying for airtime themselves, they allowed brands to bid to advertise on packages of Liquid Death, which are seen in store by 200 million+ people per week. A great way of zigging when others zag, and using existing media effectively.
The design of Mario was the result of one big constraint. His creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, was limited by low quality hardware, so he made the character as simple as possible; clothing him in red overalls and a blue shirt for contrast, using a cap to avoid drawing the character’s hairstyle, forehead, and eyebrows, and drawing a large nose and a mustache, which avoided the need for a mouth and facial expressions.
The three-Michelin-star chef limits himself to serving waste food that is normally thrown away. On a mission to reduce the billions of tons of food sent to landfill, he uses wilted herbs, soggy celery, and overripe fruit to create his meals. His signature dish, which Bottura labels ‘the world’s most wasted ingredient’, is stale bread. As the award winning chef states, “what you think is food waste is just an opportunity to create something amazing.”
Nickel, a French bank, wanted to provide financial services to low-income people but couldn’t afford to open branches everywhere. So the company used corners of existing cafés and tobacconists, which not only saved money but also provided instant reach and scale. Nickel now has 7,500 of these points of sale as well as 2.5 million customers.
Nickel, a French bank, wanted to provide financial services to low-income people but couldn’t afford to open branches everywhere. So the company used corners of existing cafés and tobacconists, which not only saved money but also provided instant reach and scale. Nickel now has 7,500 of these points of sale as well as 2.5 million customers.
Advertising was banned on the Thames in the 1920s, so gravy manufacturer Oxo decided to build their logo into the windows at the top of their tower. It’s now one of London’s most iconic buildings.