Blog8: Command X

During the Command X season three videos, I couldn’t help but notice how unexperienced the student presenters were. This is understandable because of their lack of practice in front of an audience. Although some of the students, such as the first presenter named Spencer in the competition seemed quite nervous at the begging of their presentation, overall the students were able to get their points across to the judges fairly easily.

        Some of the judges, such as the Design Museum curator Ellen, were very hard on the students and gave harsh criticism. Although I partially agree with her about the quality of the design work during the first day, I believe she should have given the students a bit more constructive criticism instead of just simply saying the first work “sucked”. Overall, the student’s design work definently increased through to the second round, which is great considering they had only three hours to work on the second designs.

If I was to decide on the top five presentation techniques the students gave, I would list them as follows:

1. Always present a bit of background information about your brand before revealing the work.
2. Always listen intently to what the judges have to say, even if you do not completely agree with them.
3. Always be able to back up any of your colour, typography and placement choices if asked a question.
4. Always know enough about your design to give an intelligent description of the work to a judge, or any other viewer of the work.
5. Always be confident in your work, but never take it for granted.

If I was to decide on the five worst errors committed by the students, I would list them as follows:

1. Never answer a question by saying “it must have exported wrong”.
2. Never argue with a person who judges your design work.
3. Try your best to talk to the judges/audience while still talking into the microphone.
4. It is better to answer with “I don’t know” than a BS answer off the top of your head.
5. Never ramble on about topics that are not 100% going to back up your design statements.