You can never unsee what you've seen, and once you've started thinking about a brand, you can never again approach it with those fresh naive eyes. This is especially true if you're new to the brand of course, but even if it's your own company and brand, you'll start to view it from a different perspective once you've climbed higher up the mountain of brand development. This is why I always try to make time for a naive brain dump session the first thing you do, before you are cursed with knowledge.

For a naive brain dump session there is really no benefit to getting strategic or selective. Just say yes to everything and go for it. The whole purpose of this exercise is to get all the unbiased thoughts and perspectives out, many of which may look terrible right now but may well be stepping stones to brilliant ideas. It's also more similar to the perspective people new to your brand are likely to have.

So wether you are doing this on your own or in a team session, get out the pens and papers, or better yet, a whiteboard, and go for it. Make sure you and everybody in your team knows the rules: Yes to everything. No criticism. Building on ideas is done in the form of "yes, and…" never "no, but". Always pick the fastest way to get ideas down. Jotting down a reference to a specific film or photo for example is faster than scrolling on that creativity-killing phone. You can always search for it later.

Also make sure you're in the right energy for this. Morning sessions work best in our experience, but everybody's different here.