Usually, when we start a project at R-Design, that project goes through the “blue sky phase”. Basically, that means that anything goes. There are no limitations to what can be done with that project. Someone might suggest that we etch a design into 4×6 platinum bars and no one will say “That’s way to expensive, you idiot.” The blue sky phase is fun. We throw a bunch of ideas around and get them all out there on the table. Only later do we sit down again to look at those ideas and ask ourselves “why not”.

It’s been 49 days since we dumped the 2000 piece puzzle on the new table in our office. We’re quite literally in the blue sky phase. This blue sky phase is very, very different from the blue sky phase we’re used to, though. This one is not at the beginning of the project. It’s no fun at all. When someone thinks they have an idea of where a particular piece fits, they’re usually wrong.

Out of the 2000 pieces, we’ve got about 1500 in their appropriate places in the puzzle. The remaining 500 pieces are all blue and together they will represent the Las Vegas sky at dusk. Other than shape, there is virtually no way to distinguish one from another. We’ve been reduced to a process of trial and error, trying hundreds of pieces before finding one that actually fits.

We’ve begun working 24 hour shifts in hopes of that we can finish the puzzle and start billing out time to clients before the entire business goes under. I made that part up. We’re actually more productive than ever because nobody wants to touch this puzzle anymore.

The puzzle is very recognizable now. Instead of a big jumble of pieces, there’s a discernable pattern. In fact, when I look at it now, I can pretty much picture the finished product instantly. It’s been 35 days since we dumped 2000 pieces onto our new table, and the progress has picked up.

It used to be that we’d sit down at the puzzle and struggle to find a piece that fit somewhere, now we’re tackling whole sections of the puzzle in a matter of minutes. Just like any idea in the office, the pace seems to accelerate as we flesh things out more (and as we get closer to the deadline). I’ll sit down at the puzzle at the end of the day to find that someone else has pieced together a whole chunk that wasn’t there when I came in that morning. Inevitably, I’ll site there for 15 minutes before going home and everyone else comes back in the next morning saying “wow, you connected that to that”. Each connection spurs further action. I suspect that by the next entry, the puzzle will be nearly completed.