Top 10 Ways to Survive Thesis (Part I)

You may remember the Barcelona Trip feature from the beginning of this year… if not, check it out! Introducing Michelle Osburn Renn, Harrington ID Alumna, once more… Michelle has pulled together some advice for surviving your Thesis class!

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While I am officially (and gratefully) a Harrington Alumna, one year ago I was just beginning my Thesis class and it was certainly the most challenging and rewarding semester I spent at Harrington. I know that all of the Thesis instructors have a different teaching style and may have minor variations in their requirements; however, in all cases this is the biggest and most important project that you will work on in your interior design undergraduate program.

You will go to class, your instructor will set the agenda and guide you through the process, but I believe there are some keys to success that are not always emphasized. I learned some of these the hard way during my own class and the rest are things that I witnessed my classmates go through. The guidance below falls under the category of “I wish someone had told me/him/her this earlier!” These are not tricks that will make Thesis easy, because it is not easy and requires hard work – that is the minimum requirement. But when someone does work hard and still falls short of expectations it can usually be tied back to one of the items below. If you are taking Thesis now or will be in the next year – save this link!

 

1. Re-organize your life (at least temporarily).
Really consider the semester that you are registered for Thesis and make sure that those 15 weeks are as clear as possible. Is your sister getting married at the end of the semester and you need to be maid-of-honor extraordinaire? Does it coincide with your busy season at work? Are you already taking four other studio classes? Do you really struggle going to class during the summer? Try not to make it more difficult by registering for Thesis during a time when you are likely to miss class, have other time-consuming commitments, or when you will not be able to devote significant energy to your project. Make no mistake; it is never a good time. I have not encountered anyone who has 15 weeks just lying around free and clear, but during this time you must to be willing to make thesis class a priority over other things in your life. If you have major commitments that will make this difficult you should weigh that heavily before registering. The good news is that it is only 15 weeks … but you need all of them.

 

2. Do not start over.
You have already taken your Thesis Prep class and you put a tremendous amount of work into concepts, building selection, initial space planning and maybe even a model. In fact, it took you an entire semester to do all that work. It is also quite possible that you are a little bit sick of it. Do not let that feeling cause you to scrap everything and start over. “I just don’t like this building anymore.” “I’m not inspired by this concept.” When you hear yourself saying these things do not take it as a cue to change from health care to hospitality or from a high rise to a rural development. Unless you require no sleep, live above the Dunkin’ Doughnuts across the street, and have no other responsibilities in your life you will not be able to start completely over with a new concept, building and design. It does not mean you cannot make major changes, but abandoning all of your Thesis prep work will not make your final project better – refining, clarifying, and working intimately with those ideas will.

 

3. Be open to change.
Wait … didn’t you just say avoid changes? Do not confuse throwing out all of your thesis prep materials with the process of making significant changes in your design. Making changes to your thesis prep work is not only important, but is a requirement. It is also possible that you loved what you came up with in Thesis Prep and unlike the people in the scenario above you actually do not want to change anything.

For both situations, if you do not take your ideas further in Thesis than you did in Thesis Prep then the class simply becomes an exercise in 3D rendering. Your final project may show some elementary ideas, but it will not have the voice that comes from seriously questioning your initial design and shedding components that are too confining or are no longer in-line with your developing concept. Good design comes from iteration and that is why #1 is so important. You need time to work with your ideas, to develop new approaches, and to add, subtract, multiply and divide until you have created the space you intended. This may mean changing your floor plan for the 5th time or radically reworking your color strategy. Change is critical and it gives birth to innovation. If your Thesis project looks just like your final Thesis Prep work then you missed the point.

Be sure to visit tomorrow and Wednesday to see the last 7 points!