BUY TWICE AS MUCH

Far too often you’ll see designers hard at work calculating exactly how much material they need to build a model, mount a presentation, or even just to prototype with. And everything would have worked out perfectly if it wasn’t for that one slip of the blade that miscut that final board. The easiest way to prevent disaster is just to simply buy more. Instead of scrambling at the 11th hour for makeshift material to finish projects, make it a habit to build up supplies from the start.

Buying extra material encourages mistakes. It encourages designers to take some risk and to try out more ideas. How many times have designers finished a model and stared at it, noticing a flaw in the design? Having extra material gives you the opportunity to capitalize on those learning experiences. In addition to encouraging greater design iterations and saving your ass from time to time, buying extra material helps to expand a designer’s library and toolbox. Keeping leftover supplies, especially unique materials, helps to create a tangible reference for designers and encourages more quick and dirty mock ups. 

Be willing to invest in materials. You’ll see a definite short term return on your project, and if you make it a habit, a long term return on your career.

PUT YOUR NAME ON EVERYTHING

The first day of studio is the first day someone loses something forever. Don’t let that someone be you. While it’s impossible to escape four years of design school without losing a few cans of Super77, X-Acto knives, and Fineliners, you can protect yourself. When it comes to your supplies, trust no one. The good news is that only 1% of your class will be comprised of malicious thieves. The bad news is that the other kind-hearted 99% will happily “borrow” your things from time to time. If you leave a ruler on your desk the night before a deadline, by morning it will have migrated to the other side of the room. Like a game of telephone, your classmates will pass that thing along as they make a mad dash toward the presentation. 

While it’s a good rule to keep your possessions under lock and key, play it safe and commit to the Sharpie. It may be painful to scrawl your name across your beautiful new over-priced art supplies, but you have to do it. And do practice your handwriting before you finally sign those triangles, or else you’ll have to stare at those scribbles forever and people will ask how you managed to misspell your name. Print your name large and with authority so that no one dares to take that template off your desk without risking injury. In spite of that, stuff will still go missing. And one day, when you stumble upon a student from a different major, in a wing completely across the building, hovering over a cutting mat with your name on it, you will be rewarded with the simple pleasure of saying, “Not yours! Yoink!”