I’ve written a fair few articles over the years aimed at final year undergraduate design students. Most of them are targeted at the bit from January onwards once they are well and truly ensconced in their project and forgetting to eat, let alone sort out their portfolio. Stuff to help them get ready for the impending job market and the big, wide, angry world.
But I was minded to consider those students about to enter their final year. The ones either moving from their second year of study or those returning from placements (sadly the latter is a diminishing animal). Prompted by a talk I was asked to give to a few placement students in a client’s business who were about to do just that.
In truth there are a thousand things I (and many others) would offer as worthy advice to impending final year design students. Stuff that could fill a compendium. And it’s a constantly evolving beast. But whilst there are certain things that are more relevant now, there are still a fair number of topics and nuggets of ‘advice’ (I say that cautiously) that stand the test of time and subjectivity. Some of this is scattered semi-randomly throughout various other posts and articles I’ve written, but I thought it would be worth bringing it all together in one place and fleshing out some newer stuff.
I should also mention that this article has been informed and supported by a whole host of peers who kindly responded to my rather random WhatsApp message asking them for their input. So whilst I’m definitely the one writing the article and it’s written in my ‘voice’ so to speak, many of the topics are suggested, championed and substantiated by others. I did think I might attribute quotes and specific advice to certain individuals but then it gets a bit messy – also remembering that some prefer to stay anonymous for a variety of reasons. To further qualify things, a fair few provided advice and thoughts related to job hunting or the broader ‘end of year’ approach. I’ve removed these as I’ve covered a lot of this stuff in other articles. This one is just about the approach to the final year itself, up to the point where you are too far gone to do anything else.
I normally start by saying there’s no particular order of importance, but in this instance I’ve tried to order it in a way that reflects the order of the year (very roughly) although not everything adheres to this logic…
1. Take time to consider your project topic.
This is a BIG decision. You may not fully realise the gravity of the decision until it’s too late, but it is.
But more importantly, aside from the gravity, it is something that you will have to spend the majority of your time living, breathing and loving for the best part of a year. Make sure it’s something that you feel you can commit to. That you can love. That you can be passionate about. That you can really dive into. That has depth and breadth. That has scope. That has purpose.
As many have noted, this is the one and only time that you will have free reign to select, define and create a full product solution of your own choice and making….maybe ever. I know that sounds rather dramatic but it’s sort of true. When you start work, it is impossibly unlikely that you will be entrusted to design a whole product from start to finish, or be the sole arbiter of taste. You will be one of a few or of many in future projects. One in a list. For your final project, you are the list.
You can be as ambitious, as bonkers, as whimsical, as pragmatic, as batshit crazy, or as dishwater dull as you want to be. Don’t be swayed by your peers. Don’t look left and right to compare. Crack on. Be you. Do you. And do it 100%.
2. Understand your positioning.
Choosing a final project is hard. Bloody hard. Probably the hardest and most impactful singular decision you will have to make at that age, because unfortunately, it kinda defines your trajectory and future audience.
If you decide to design an educational toy for early years education, you will be noticed by people who understand and are immersed in that market. Similarly with healthcare products, outdoor products, maternity products, sportswear products…you get the idea. It shouldn’t be the case. Prospective employers should see past your ‘idea’ and see the talent and approach behind it, but given the way design work is presented (i.e. degree shows, online showcases and New Designers), there is an immediate judgement made by the project alone on behalf of the student, not to mention the speed and efficiency required of the various industry judges to seek out award worthy candidates.
For sure, brillant work is still brilliant, and if presented well, will catch the eye of any self respecting, design informed professional, but these are unfortunately rare. More often than not, your ‘project topic’ will automatically ‘filter’ the people that ultimately take interest in it, and by default, the opportunities that may present themselves to you. Just look at the awards handed out at New Designers. Homeware brands tend to award students with ‘homeware-esque’ projects. Medical consultancies tend to award students with ‘healthcare topical’ projects. It’s sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Brands want to be associated with great work that reflects their values, product portfolio and market, so they naturally seek out and are drawn to products that speak their language.
So, my advice is to pick a topic that either specifically targets the market or industry you wish to inhabit, or to find something that can deliver broad appeal. Things that people can relate to, regardless of industry. Even if you can’t necessarily be calculated about it or circumstances prevent you from be that selective, just ensure that you are aware of the way your work might be ‘judged’ at the end of this chaotic year and either pivot or craft your messaging accordingly.
3. Avoid hobbies.
When you are choosing your final project, avoid hobbies like the plague. It may well be something you are keenly interested in and can see improvement for, but all it says to me as a prospective employer, is that you’ve avoided tackling a subject you know nothing about, which is something every designer should be able to do.
Things to do with biking or camping or very specific sports are huge watch outs for me, despite how beautifully resolved or well researched they may be.
Research and empathy are key skills that every designer needs to develop. Putting yourself in the shoes of the user. Understanding context. Appreciating the entire user journey. Bringing fresh eyes to a problem needing a solution. Asking insightful questions. These are all things that a hobbyist simply can’t do because they bring with them all manner of prejudices and preconceptions. For sure, you can bring an ‘expert’ opinion to the table, but that’s just one of many inputs required of a balanced design solution.
I’d also (cautiously) avoid projects to do with babies or young children. Not because they are not valid or interesting, but because you will be hindered by all manner of University ethics policies. Unless you are determined, and desperate to tackle a specific topic, ethics will weigh you down unnecessarily, at a time when you often don’t have the time or resources to circumvent them.
4. Be aware of topicality.
This is a tricky one as topical subjects can yield brilliant subject matter, but like the old adage…’today’s headline is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper’. It’s quite interesting to visit degree shows or New Designers each year as it gives you a bit of a flashback to what was happening this time last year, as many students look to the news or current events to inspire their thinking.
A few years ago it was mental health (for obvious COVID reasons). Sometimes it’s a specific event like a natural disaster or man-made crisis that prompts ideas. I’m certainly not suggesting you avoid these topics but just bear in mind the lag between it being top of mind and the time when you will be presenting your work to the world. Some stuff is consistently valid, incredibly relevant and such events only concentrate the mind. But some stuff can feel a bit outdated and ‘forgotten’ a year later.
Apologies…this might sound a little trite and insensitive. It’s not meant to be. It’s just a cautionary note to think ahead to the time when your work will be critiqued and discussed. Think about how relevant your project will sound and how much ‘back story’ might be required each time your share your work.
5. Be really f**king clear.
When you approach your project, it’s all too easy to get sucked into the product bits. The form, the function, the desirability…the stuff you see. But before you do any of that, you need to be really clear about what problem it is that you are tackling. And try to write it as if a human being with a need would say it, not as a product description.
The minute you start describing a thingy, you are already starting to define the solution. It might not be a thingy at all. It might be an experience. It might be a service. It might just be education and communication.
And always root yourself back to the problem statement when working your way through the project. Be ruthless about ideas. Don’t be afraid to pivot your thinking if the route you are following is going nowhere or it feels like a fudge. Frame the problem in a way that avoids starting to ‘solutionise’. Keep the user front and centre.
Because if you keep ‘micro fudging’ as your project evolves, you end up with a messy proposition. It might look amazeballs but people need to understand the specific problem or challenge you have attempted to solve. You need to be able to write it as a headline on your degree show board and people should just ‘get it’.
My favourite pastime at degree shows is the ‘WTF is it? game’. You have 5 seconds. If I don’t understand what you have tackled or what the problem was, I can’t fully assess if you’ve done a good job. I appreciate this sounds rather egotistical and Trumpian, but you should be able to craft a statement that captures your project ethos in such a way that I understand the challenge. Then take me on a sensible, educational journey to your solution.
6. Intent and Integrity.
Most of the time, your major project gives you licence to do what you want (assuming you can get approval from your project tutor), but we now work in an era where there are some critical topics that warrant consideration. As one peer noted “Sustainability isn’t optional.”
How do the materials support a low carbon economy? Have you thought about life cycle extension (service/re-use/refurbishment)? What about second or third life? What about ease of disassembly at end of life? To paraphrase, “No new product should have the right to exist without robust responses to these questions.” You could argue that all of this is just ‘good design’ but it’s also just too important to assume and smoosh it all together. It needs calling out and it needs addressing. To quote the same peer “The speed and severity of the changes we’re seeing all around us still increase year on year, and I find our collective inertia to a meaningful response both staggering and terrifying!”
I don’t normally link to resources in these articles, but here’s a recently published toolkit by the Design Council which is useful reading.
The broader topic is one of integrity though. As designers we are (partly or significantly) responsible for many of the decisions that lead to physical waste. And if you don’t see it as responsibility, then at least consider it as influence. These things are no longer ‘side shows’ but the main event. As you work towards your final project solution, the more you can evidence this thinking and whole system approach, the more relevant you will be as a future hire. You are no longer niche with your thinking. You are front and centre.
7. Show your working.
Of all the comments from peers, the one that is almost universally guaranteed is ‘show the process’. Without fail. Unless you get hired specifically as a visualiser, you will be hired on the basis of your ability to think and solve, not polish and present.
Which means you need to build, test and explore. You will learn more in 2 hours with card, a sharp scalpel and hot glue than any amount of CAD or rendering. Hack existing products. Frankenstein the shizzle out of anything you can get your hands on to learn. Buy broken stuff and try to fix it. Like, really learn. Hobbycraft and Screwfix are your friends. ‘Crude’ beats ‘polished’ when you are exploring. Handle stuff. Break stuff. Iterate stuff. Scribble. Photograph. Test stuff on (willing) people to see how they react. Seek out honesty. Get the message?
In a world that can all too easily suck you into AI mindstorms, digital CAD or rendering wormholes, you need to step back and get real. Do stuff in the right order. It’s easy to discard a failed cardboard lash up because it didn’t work. It’s harder to press ‘delete’ on a CAD model that took you 3 weeks. Make sure you build on the right foundational thinking and don’t be precious about ideas until something genuinely feels sticky.
And make sure you capture it all. Your eventual portfolio needs to show all of this beautiful chaos. Evolution. Consideration. Learning. Failure. It is essential to the way you will eventually need to work in industry. You don’t submit a final render to your design manager, you show them what you’ve done and how you got there…warts and all.
8. Size of a football.
This is a practical bit of advice.
Remembering that your project will most likely be placed on a wooden plinth (or two) about a metre off the floor with a footprint of about a foot square in front of a printed poster. Remembering that people kinda need to notice it from enough of a distance to be interested to walk towards it. Remembering that your student house and the workshops are normally a fair distance apart. Remembering that ‘affordable’ 3D printers have a volumetric bed size of about a square foot. Remembering that as students, your pennies will have to go further. Remembering that you will probably have a fairly average student desk in your fairly shitty student house on which to tinker, test, rig up, solder, glue, cut and fold. Remembering that materials, samples, parts and all sorts of other stuff is easier to get hold of in smaller quantities and sizes.
Is why I tend to suggest you find a project that is about the size of a football…or thereabouts. For sure, if you want to do something bigger then go for it, but take it from someone who attempted to build a product (working prototype and full scale aesthetic model) that was about the size of 12 year old child!
9. Avoid invention.
There is a massive temptation, which has been going back decades, to ‘invent’ something brand spanking new with your major project. Something that no-one has ever thought to do before and will rock the world on its axis. To tread brand new ground.
But this is both futile and (almost) impossible.
Firstly, you don’t get any more marks for invention. Period.
Secondly, any job that you will hopefully eventually land will unlikely ever require you to ‘invent’ in the truest sense. 99% of design jobs are about finding ways around a problem, but typically in ways that are not ‘invention led’. They are about improvement, optimisation, simplification, usability, desirability, cost reduction and a thousand other things. Sometimes the happy by-product of that endeavour is a patent or novelty, but again this is rarely ‘invention’ in the sense that most students will understand it.
I’ve been part of projects that have delivered patent worthy ‘invention’ but its things like ‘how a deodorant can activates’ or ‘the way a contact lens is dispensed’. It’s not inventing a new way to stop people sweating or a new technology to save people’s eyesight…much as that would be amazing.
Don’t mistake invention for clever problem solving.
Thirdly, it’s much, much harder to ‘invent’ from scratch and takes much much longer than you have in your final year. People who have attempted this in the past have unfortunately failed miserably and delivered something that is rarely as resolved or as conclusive as their graduating peers. Not because they are less capable students, but because it just takes bloody ages to invent properly. To create something nobody has created before is almost impossible. And like I said at the start, you don’t get any more marks for it.
10. Get good at (or at least familiar with) AI.
Every one of you will have tried some version of AI in your project work. Whether it’s rewriting with Chat or concept exploration with MidJourney, you will all have dabbled. And no doubt the University course will have warned you against overt and flagrant misuse of these tools. Indeed, you may have read all sorts of doom mongering and scepticism in industry press about it all, but it ain’t going away.
Design businesses across the land will be wrestling with how much they adopt or shun AI, and then how this might be communicated in their messaging. But all of them understands the impact it will make, and for many, AI becomes yet another new trick for an old dog. That’s where you come in.
I would urge anyone studying design to understand the tools at their disposal, use it in some form in their project work and be clear that you have done. Talk about it. Demonstrate its impact. Share your skills and knowledge, because the industry needs it and if you have it, you will be a desirable hire. Regardless of specific individual opinions, the design industry runs on profitability, so if you can demonstrate your ability to streamline, expand or optimise parts of the process using AI, you are showing how you can save or make a business money. Anyone ignoring it is a fool. For sure you can choose to not use it, but you still need to be aware of it and how it can help you when you do need it.
If your course tutor is saying not to use it, ignore them. You might not get the grade, but you’ll get noticed. And it’s a necessary and relevant skill that is only going to get more and more in demand.
11. ‘The bubble’.
This is the hardest thing to avoid despite having had countless promises to the contrary from almost every past student I’ve supported. The ‘bubble’. The University vortex that sucks you in and cuts off all contact with the outside world.
Every. Single. Year. I have a conversation with a student about to enter their final year and I say “Make sure you keep in touch. If not with me, then with your placement employer, or anyone you know on the outside.” And every year, I hear the same words. “Of course…will do!” And then nothing until about 2 days before the degree show.
I cannot stress enough the benefits of an outside set of opinions on your work. Many within the University construct will suggest that your major project tutor is enough to guide your through but – being blunt – they are wrong. I’ve heard students relay the most inappropriate and nonsensical advice given to them from tutors. Advice that takes them down roads they simply shouldn’t be travelling. Roads that lead to theoretical nonsense rather than real world pragmatism or more up to date user thinking. Ironically, this isn’t a dig at the tutors…often they are not the right people to advise the student but they have a job to do so deliver the advice they feel best fits.
Please remember that when you graduate, you will be judged more on your output and your ability to connect than you will on your degree result. Whilst that might completely contradict what you are told at University, most design firms or hiring teams couldn’t give two hoots about your 1st class degree. They will look at your work, talk to you about it, figure out if they think you can be thrown in front of a client, work out if you rub people up the wrong way, ask if you can use the tools they’ve invested in and estimate your flexibility, efficiency and adaptability. Things that make them money or deliver results.
So make sure you stay in touch with people who are grounded and can offer you sensible, pragmatic and realistic advice about the course of your project. Once you’ve handed in your major project and it’s been marked, the University doesn’t care any more (I caveat that by saying that there are some amazing ‘on the ground’ course tutors who will be invested in seeing you do well). You are a statistic. Potentially a tasty bit of PR for New Designers or a natty little promotional video case study about the course, but they will not help you actually get a job. It’s just the way the world turns.
12. Relationships are everything.
A sobering truth is that almost no-one gets a job off the back of their project simply being shown to the big wide world at a degree show. For sure there will be interest, but you will get much further by building a network. This ties in closely to my point about not getting stuck in a bubble but has subtle differences. Whilst the bubble bit is about staying connected to the ‘non University’ world, this bit is about building and maintaining contact with the industry you wish to inhabit.
This does not mean sending the occasional LinkedIn connection request to people you want a job from (although that never hurts) and carrying on. This is about putting some time and effort into building robust and two way relationships with people who can help you. Help you with your project. Help you with your direction. Help you with real world insight. Help you with introductions. Help you with balance. Help you with approach. Help you see things differently.
But you have to put the hard yards in. You can’t expect people to bend over backwards if you are sending a generic, blanket bomb email to a whole load of consultancies. You will just be ignored. Be targeted. Do your homework. Find out what they can offer and ask specifics. Seek advice (most designers are too vain not to bite on that one!). Find people related to your major project – they will most likely be invested in helping you and promoting your final result. Give them time to respond – don’t simply email a few days before your hand in. People are busy. And don’t just ask for a job. Anyone talking to you will know you are going to be seeking a career step at some stage. They’ve been there and know it all too well. The job stuff is almost unspoken but universally understood.
As much as it feels unfair, you are the bottom of the ‘priority ladder’. Be prepared to meet people on their terms. Be prepared to wait. Be prepared with stuff you can send them if they request it. Because if you are prepared, you will reap rewards. Relationships are the bedrock of the creative industries. A well connected, relationship focussed student will fly further and faster than a reclusive genius. Every. Single. Time.
But don’t mistake connections for ‘followers’ or ‘likes’. Relationships have to be genuine. Invest in them and they will pay.
13. Be careful of IP.
I know I’ve talked about the importance of building relationships with industry, but with this – as with any form of commercial sponsorship – you need to be cogniscent of intellectual property (often referred to as IP). I’ve helped a number of students over the years negotiate with their respective universities when helping them secure industrial sponsorship for their final year project*, and it tends to get a bit muddy.
University ‘contracts’ (which you effectively sign up to by attending the course) typically give the University automatic IP entitlement to any work you produce in your time at University, even if you ‘create’ it offsite. This can range from 10% to 50% ownership which means that if you develop something of ‘commercial interest’ and you decide to take it forward, the University is a shareholder in your idea.
For many this isn’t a problem, as their work is simply a vehicle to ‘get’ a job. A demonstrable vehicle of employability. Once submitted, it probably sits in a parents’ loft for decades or sits in the University foyer for a few years before getting unceremoniously dumped (mine was given a ‘Viking burial’ I’m told by a course tutor).
But there are instances where this IP gets tricky. If you are lucky enough to get final year sponsorship for your final project (which is something I’d encourage…I did it and it benefitted me), you need to be clear with both the sponsoring party and the University about the division of ‘ownership’. A business is not going to sponsor you if a large proportion of your work (and most likely their input) ultimately then belongs to the University. Similarly, a business or individual in industry is going to be reluctant to share trade related information if this then potentially gets interwoven with University IP regulation.
My advice is – if you think you are going to be sponsored or might seek industry specific input to your project – that you request absolution from any University IP complexities. From direct experience, this usually involves speaking to a load of people who don’t know anything about it or who to talk to, but eventually you find the right person and can explain what you want. Most Universities are pretty good (if sometimes a little reluctant initially…understandably) at coming to a compromise or relinquishing ownership to the individual or acknowledging IP ownership of other parties. Just keep pushing.
14. Pace yourself .
For those lucky enough to have come into final year off the back of a placement, you will have naturally been conditioned to a working rhythm. Waking early, being ‘productive’ for a certain number hours a day and then ‘clocking off’ to enjoy time away from the screen and do other things. Eating properly. Getting outside. That sort of thing.
But those going straight on from 2nd to final year don’t have that luxury and are typically still living a ‘student existence’. The kind that peaks and troughs depending on deadlines and nocturnal bodyclocks.
Everyone will have a different set of hours within a 24 hour period when they feel they are most productive or ‘in the zone’. I get it. I hated early mornings and found that I worked best in the early evening in my early twenties. Find yours by all means but build around it a bit of a regime that at least allows you to access things like practical workshops or professional feedback or print bureaus. If you always end up working late into the night, you will start to lose some of the most ‘commonly productive’ hours of the working day which in turn will delay your progress.
Also, make sure you keep up a sense of achievable momentum. Do something every day. Don’t leave things to the last minute (I wince when I write that as I was the biggest culprit…and still regret it to this day). Set yourself sensible midway targets. Allow yourself reworking time. Give yourself space to change direction or reconsider things. Build in slack to facilitate feedback from people who can’t reply immediately (most people). With previous students who I have supported, I set fortnightly catchups with them, regardless of whether they had anything new to share, as it kept them to a rhythmic clock of delivery. If the catchup lasted 10 mins and all that came out of it was a brief and cheerful “keep going”, it was worth it to keep them on course.
You will be astonished at how quickly the year disappears despite how much you think you’ve got everything nailed. You will blink and a term has evaporated. Blink again and it’ll be hand-in time. All those best laid plans of exploration, diligence, professionalism and craftsmanship will go up in smoke if you don’t plan your time. Plan to fail. Plan for anything and everything. Then stick to it.
The difference between this and any other previous course submission is that whilst other work might get you a grade towards your degree, your major project has a significant influence over your immediate future trajectory. As an aside, I’m not particularly convinced by the effectiveness of the major project as a vehicle for most students but it is the ‘course standard’ and isn’t going away anytime soon. You need it to succeed if you are to succeed.
Also, make sure you don’t isolate yourself. Be around others. Talk about your work. Get out of your room. Share the problems you are facing. Listen to others who are facing their own. Find solidarity. Seek comfort in peers. Work together. Keep each other paced and motivated. Work hard together and then play hard together. You are all going through a uniquely tricky year together and bonds will be forged – maybe not in blood – but in sweat and tears!
15. January.
The initial furore of your final year will be spent attempting to get approval for, or even think about what your final project topic might be. Then, depending upon your specific course, there will typically be a pause at some point over the Christmas break. This is often an opportunity for course turns to review concepts or research or other output to check you are on track.
But this is no time to chill. I always urge undergrads to use the week or so beforehand, but more likely the fortnight following the Christmas celebrations, to do a few things.
Sort out your portfolio. This doesn’t mean completely finished, but you need to put the legwork in to ensure you have a structure, framework and narrative that you can continue to update as the year progresses. Different people have different points of view on this, but my advice is to keep it simple and stick to preparing it in InDesign or similar. Set up a page template that works, ensure you have your contact details on every page, be clear about what you are saying on each page, blah, blah, blah (there’s lots more of this type of stuff in my other “Dear Undergraduate…” articles) but basically put in the hard yards now so that you are not faced with an insurmountable task when you are juggling major project deadlines and someone asks to see your portfolio.
Also, don’t be worried about ‘work in progress’. Anyone asking to see you portfolio before May/June time knows that you haven’t finished your major project so won’t be expecting to see the finished article, but remember what I said about ‘show your working’? A design leader worth their salt will be able to look at your approach and thinking (at whatever stage you’ve got to) and understand what kind of thinker or problem solver you are. You don’t need polished renders or exploded views. For sure, that stuff will add to your armoury and build a more refined picture, but it won’t change the fundamentals.
It is more important that you have a portfolio ready to deploy at a moment’s notice to someone interested to talk to you than any level of completeness. Of course, make it look decent, and be attentive to detail and layout, but it doesn’t have to be finished.
Because the other thing that starts to happen in early January, is that businesses start thinking about future hires. It’s typically a time when they get a bit more clarity on growth, headcount, client expectations and budgets. The greater the foresight and certainty, the earlier they will look to secure the best talent come July/August/September. So the earlier you can be ready to respond to – or even better, proactively contact – any businesses looking to hire, the more likely you are going to impress them and make a good first impression. This typically happens in early January/February, although I’ve seen it happen earlier and earlier.
Anyone who leaves it until New Designers to ‘sort out their portfolio’ or ‘send out some feelers’ has already lost out on 80-90% of the best opportunities. Maybe even more. If you are lucky, you win one of the handful of prizes on offer, but this still doesn’t guarantee you a job. Just some tidy PR.
The savvy (and slightly smug) ones are the ones who graduate already having secured something, because they stayed ahead of the game. For sure, there are some agencies and businesses who delay hiring until after the degree shows, but there’s still no harm in getting in touch with them earlier in the year anyway. If you are a good candidate, you will be considered regardless of how early you approach. They may choose to keep their powder dry and wait but most decent hiring managers will see and strike if the opportunity presents itself.
It’s not a hard and fast set of rules, but I’d argue that having this stuff ready earlier is always going to be more advantageous than not.
16. Contact details.
A quick one, but so important. I’ve lost count (and rather unfortunately, lost touch) with so many students who haven’t maintained either a LinkedIn profile or some obvious way for people to find them or stay in touch. A recent trip to New Designers left me with countless lovely little business cards with only half of them having a LinkedIn* presence. Cards go in a drawer or the bin. Most people will look to connect on LinkedIn where you are then able to maintain visibility (depending on how diligent you are).
Many have an Instagram account (or TikTok/YouTube/Behance/Medium/Substack etc.) but that’s not always the best platform to get ‘professional’ eyeballs on your activity, and certainly not the easiest way to permit potential employers or interested parties to get in touch or facilitate introductions.
It’s the easiest thing to do, but still something that I see every single year. For sure, some of it is the responsibility of the University or the course tutors to encourage, but most of it is down to you. And make sure you do it before you start your final year, as you will get opportunities to build your network over the arc of your project, and it’s a great way to seek support and build a bit of anticipation and interest in you and your work as you move through the year.
*LinkedIn is certainly not faultless but it’s the de facto ‘connection’ platform (for now).
17. Healthy body, productive mind. .
An obvious one, but one that gets so easily and quickly forgotten. Stay healthy. Sleep properly. Eat well. Get exercise (in whatever form you can find…even a brisk walk is good). Have fun. Let your hair down. Get some Vitamin C, and D…and as many others as you can muster.
Your brain is your superpower. Without it, you and your project are buggered. Your creativity stutters. Your acuity stumbles. Your mental diligence falters. And your brain relies on your body for good housekeeping. Keep those in check, well fuelled and rested and you will fly. Destroy them and you will look back on your work and realise how you underperformed.
Phew.
That was a lot to cover. I did run this article through our friend ChatGPT and it suggested I could be a bit more concise (I know it was just being polite) but given my track record, I figured I would publish it as it was written. I tend to avoid too much editing…as you can tell!
I hope you read it not as a thriller but as a reference guide. Something to create a checklist from and allow yourself to be prepared.
But don’t be alarmed. Many, many people have been there before you and completely understand how tiring, exasperating, frustrating and fraught it can be, but also how self-fulfilling, life-affirming, autonomous and thrilling it can be at the same time. You are not alone and yet you are doing your own thing. Seek support, get help, talk to people, take care of yourself, and all will be well.
And at the end of the day, if it all goes tits up, there are plenty of ways to skin the ensuant cat. These are just metaphorical doors that open and close based on the decisions you make and the actions you take. There are always other doors.
My thanks to all the lovely people who pinged through their thoughts, advice, nuggets of wisdom or cautionary tales when prompted. It is appreciated. It’s also useful for ‘future final year’ readers of this article to know that the thoughts in this article are not simply the ramblings of one old man (although the words used are), but the assembled consolidated experiences of many wise (and relatively freshly minted) designers across the industrial design spectrum.
Best of luck with whatever you choose to tackle.
