Yesterday, during the studio pin up session, I noticed some students were slowly “getting off from the blocks” but many did not realise that they are in a race. In a sprint relay analogy, getting a momentum quickly would ensure that you have a chance to grab for a credible medal finish. But of course, you would need to build on that momentum until the finishing line.
Another analogy is to compare the design thesis process with a “marathon”. In this case, its about “pacing oneself”.
The ideas “momentum building” and “pacing oneself” are important aspects in sustaining a possible winning finish and is something that I believe into be true.
I remembered having a good momentum doing my design thesis but fell into a fairly long period of distraction, side-tracked, off-paced and was sufficiently emotionally exhausted with a problem that I had with a couple of housemates back then in London. It was really affecting me badly and my design thesis supervisor noticed it by saying ” you have not been progressing…” I did not tell her exactly what the problem was, but I acknowledged her diagnosis by saying that ” Yeah, it’s so difficult to push my design further and it feels like ‘wringing clothes and getting very little water out’ with my progress”.
I reflected on yesterday’s pin up session and the fact that the bare bones and rudimentary outline of things to come was shown by many students. Be it in the program, the sketch, the diagram… so like in a race, all the student need is to just push on to get the right concept.
If the momentum is not there or really slow in coming, sometimes the problem is ‘not dealing with a bigger issue’, not asking the important and over-riding question earlier in the design process.
Sometimes its just about just drawing, drawing and drawing – it out!
It’s visual, so it has to be tangible.
