creative agency Archives

Occam’s Razor and the Art of Brand Clarity

At Otherwise, we’re drawn to ideas that hold power in their precision — frameworks that slice through the noise without losing the depth. One such idea, borrowed from the worlds of logic, theology, and philosophy, is Occam’s Razor. Often misquoted, often misunderstood, but always useful. A brief history of the blade The principle that would […]

Dec 15 2025 by Nancy Lerner in Brandshrink

The Peril of Perfect Moments

In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut conjures a world in which time is not linear but fixed — all moments exist simultaneously, and humans, like insects in amber, are stuck inside them. “Trapped in the amber of this moment,” he writes, evoking both the beauty and the horror of timelessness. It’s a vivid metaphor for what happens […]

Nov 9 2025 by Nancy Lerner in Brandshrink

The Butterfly Effect: Small Gestures, Big Weather

In 1961, meteorologist Edward Lorenz was running early computer simulations of weather patterns when he made a small change—rounding an input from 0.506127 to 0.506. To his surprise, the resulting forecast diverged dramatically from the original. This discovery led to his 1963 paper, Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow, and a poetic phrase that would eventually enter pop […]

Oct 26 2025 by Nancy Lerner in Editorials

Wonder as a Working Method

Robert Frost’s phrase—our place among the infinities—opens a door we’re still learning to walk through. It suggests not one infinity but many: the outward sprawl of galaxies and the inward expanse of human interiority; the infinitude of time and the infinitude of interpretations; the boundless network of relationships that make meaning possible. In brand-building, this […]

Aug 19 2025 by Nancy Lerner in Editorials

The Language of Trees: What Botanical Systems Teach Us About Growth

In the dominant business imagination, growth is a conquest. It’s framed in the language of acceleration, scale, and competitive advantage. Brands are expected to move fast, break things, and stay “ahead of the curve.” But in the face of ecological collapse, economic precarity, and cultural burnout, this mode of thinking is beginning to show its […]

Aug 3 2025 by Nancy Lerner in Brandshrink