The concept phase is an explosion of ideas shooting off in almost random directions. In the refinement phase of the creative process we look for links between concepts, gradually building upon what has been developed and referring to both the brief and reflecting on the inspirations gathered in phase one.
The refinement process draws to a close with each team member giving thumbs up to the concepts they like, narrowing the field for the evaluation process. This can be done with the simple process of placing a post-it note with their initials on each concept they feel strongly about. There is no upper limit to this process, but through the process of refinement and reduction the number of concepts should be reduced to a manageable level.