The Dope.

Advice:

Creative freedom is wonderful, but when in doubt, add constraints.

Constraints are the rules or limitations through which design is conceived and created. These limitations can be self-imposed, conceptual necessities, client directives, cost influenced, etc… 

Designer, Charles Eames addressed the topic of design constraints in a 1972 interview (as part of the What is Design exhibition at the Palais de Louvre):

Q: “Does the creation of Design admit constraint?”

A: “Design depends largely on constraints.”

Q: “What constraints?”

A: “The sum of all constraints. Here is one of the few effective keys to the Design problem: the ability of the Designer to recognize as many of the constraints as possible; his willingness and enthusiasm for working within these constraints. Constraints of price, of size, of strength, of balance, of surface, of time, and so forth. Each problem has its own peculiar list.”