Crit Presentation Skills
Hello everyone! We hope you’ve all had a great week, Sude is back! For today’s post we will be covering some tips on helping you improve your crit presentation skills. We’ve spoken about things you can do before and after your crits but haven’t mentioned how to present well so... let's begin!
1. Make it Cohesive
Before you present your project to someone else, you need to make sure that everything makes absolute sense to you. It’s hard to expect someone to understand your project clearly if you have trouble understanding it yourself. Organise your pages so there is a consistent flow throughout your presentation rather than fluctuations. This will also make it easier for you to talk through your thought process smoothly. Establishing a narrative that follows through your design project is a good way to maintain a cohesive presentation, and will help your audience follow along with your crit.
2. Confidence
This is something that we have mentioned before on countless occasions. If you sound like you are doubting your own project, it’s going to be hard to convince your tutors, externals and the rest of your studio that your project is worth listening to. Remember that this is your project, and for that reason you have to make sure you know your design process inside out and why you made the design decisions that led you to your final iteration. Being prepared for questions on your project will naturally make you more confident as you present your work. No one else in the room is capable of presenting this project better than you. If you have to, put on a different tone... it might help!
3. Portfolio Pages vs Crit Pages
Some advice my studio tutor gave us recently is that our crit pages and pages that we prepare for submission should be different. The reason for this is because in a portfolio submission the tutors have the time to look at the page in more thorough detail, read text if necessary and analyse your pages without a specific time restriction. However, during your crit, it’s very likely that you stay on each page for no longer than 20 seconds, maybe even less. It’s very important that you don’t confuse the critics when presenting by showing them pages with multiple things on them, especially without a hierarchy. Try to keep to 1-2 images or drawings per page that get the point across whilst you speak. This gives the critics something to focus on whilst you continue talking.
4. Take Advantage of Online Crits
There isn’t necessarily anything against holding a sheet of paper or a notebook whilst presenting in studio although, it’s more appealing to not see a student reading off of something when presenting. However, with the luxury of being in your own home and sometimes not even needing to have your camera on when presenting work, you can easily have a few notes on the side. This can help if you are worried about overrunning or blacking out during your presentation.
5. Practice
This isn’t something that you can do during your actual crit but I still wanted to remind you all that practicing your crit with friends/family or even to yourself is really helpful. They don’t need to be individuals with a background in architecture. The point of this exercise is to see 1) if your presentation is clear and 2) if you are spending too much time on some pages living less time for pages later on. You can then base your speech on what you’ve gathered, keeping it concise in some places and detailed in others.
6. Do not present everything
In the beginning of a project, you are advised to do as much research as you can about your occupants and site. It’s very likely that you’ll end up with tons of pages full of research but later on in the project some of that information will no longer be relevant. So why keep it in for your crits? You probably won’t even mention those parts. If you’re finding that you are overrunning, take out information that isn’t referred back to later on in the project. The same goes for submission pages. This doesn’t mean to take out every single thing because you want to show that you did thorough research so be strategic about it.
7. Keep Track of Time
The majority of you are probably having crits online. Like preparing a speech for your crit, you can also have your phone running a stopwatch beside you whilst you present. No one would know that you are keeping track of your own time and you’ll be able to see how long you have left. Dependent on how long it’s been you can pick up the pace or slow down and spend more time explaining your project. This will be helpful in making sure you do not go over time and get cut off.
8. Be Interactive with the Panel
Retreating back to crits which take place in a studio setting with the critics in front of you, once the pandemic restrictions ease significantly, consider giving the critics your physical models to interact with. Begin your crit with your models on a sleek podium but also hand them over to your critics to look at whilst you talk about your thought process. Engage with them so they do not lose focus. It can be a long day for tutors and externals as well and just like us, they become tired. So giving them physical models to handle whilst you speak brings their attention back to you and your project. Once COVID-19 has left our lives and we have gone back to face-to-face crits, this tip will be very helpful to take into consideration. Whilst we are online, however, a simple and easy way to engage with the panel is by switching your camera on and briefly introducing yourself to your critics on a more personal level. This establishes a connection between yourself and the panel, and can break that barrier as you show your confidence through a simple introduction. This also demonstrates that you’re not worried about your presentation and have everything under control, ready to give a smooth and solid presentation.
We have come to the end of another blog post everyone! I hope the advice we have given can help you guys out with your future crits. Feel free to share some more presentation tips with us in the comments of our latest Instagram post. Follow us over on Instagram @archidabble to enjoy the content we upload there on Mondays and sign up to our mailing list to be notified every time we have a new blog post up! See you next week!
