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One of the interesting things about starting a project with a blank slate is the size and expanse of that slate. When the limits are only what we have interest in researching, well, that’s not really a limit at all.

I’m reminded of Chuck Jones, famous animator and director of many of the best Looney Tunes. Jones saw the infinite opportunity of animation as one of its hardest limits. That giving these silly little drawings unlimited rein on reality would make the situations unrelatable and the stories unfunny. So he imposed rules on the characters. Bugs Bunny could never be the aggressor because that would make him a bully. Daffy’s failure always stemmed from his own greed. Wile E. Coyote could always stop chasing Roadrunner, but never would.

So one of the things we’re working on right now is rules. Pop Culture is so expansive and so all encompassing that we have to narrow the field for a good long while. We have to boil it down to something tangible, something we can describe in a word or two. Something that puts a picture in people’s minds.

We grow up thinking that limits are always the worst things possible. But applied properly, they can be useful, focusing, and productive. Unlike these Acme rocket shoes.