Appropriate design vs. self-indulgent design.

This is a constant battle with oneself. At least with myself. If you are a designer and do not interrogate your internal compass on a design project or brand, you may be doing yourself and the project/brand a disservice.

How do you turn off the ego and use the remnants to apply to a solution that is at once appropriate, effective and beautiful?

It is much easier to paint the world in your color than to listen to your rational self and paint it in the color that may be right for that "place." Make sense?

We are working on a brand that needs to look like it is from 1939. We do not want to mock authenticity, we want to make it as truly authentic as possible - although this ID never existed in this way. Imagine if you found a bunch of business cards in a basement that have not been touched in 70 years. What would they look like? Sound like fun? Try it. It has been and can be done well, but mostly it is a fucking horror show.....I have seen it in ID, design and to the most grotesque degree in architecture. I will post our proposal to the client - but he needs to see it first!