First impressions have a reputation.
I’ve always trusted mine. Or better said, I gravitate toward them.
Whether it’s snapping up those knee-high boots that caught my eye, making snap judgments about people after brief conversations, or hiring someone based on a gut feeling, my bias toward first impressions is hard to miss.
And, well, sometimes I’ve been proven wrong.
Those sleek boots? They look better sitting in the basement than on my legs. The colleague who dazzled at their interview? Turns out the shine wore off fast. And the person I thought was uninterested in conversation? Turns out they were just quiet around new people.
But despite these missteps, there’s one area where I still put my faith in first impressions without hesitation: creative work.
First Impressions and Design Work
This tendency shows up most during student presentations.
Instead of fully tuning into their detailed project explanations, I find myself zeroing in on the pinned-up documents on the wall: titles, sketches, plans.
As I take in the visual cues, my mind starts spinning its own stories about the projects.
- Why did she pick that location to pin up her work?
- Did he really change his whole idea since last week?
- What drives this student’s relentless output compared to their classmates?
Where to start?
A recent conversation with one standout student really brought this habit into focus.
Her project stood out in terms of both quantity and quality, so naturally, I was curious.
“How do you start?” I asked, expecting some secret method. Her answer was simple yet eye-opening: “I decide what I want to present at the end, and I work towards that.”
The Power of Deciding
The word decide lingered in my mind. It wasn’t just that she had a plan—it was that she trusted her initial vision, her first impression.
Unconsciously, she’d anchored herself in that gut reaction, letting it guide her through the unknowns.
It made me rethink the bad rap first impressions often get.
In creative work, they’re not careless judgments; they’re the initial spark that helps us find our way through the fog.
Design work, especially in its early stages, is riddled with ambiguity. Whether it’s that first site visit with a client, scanning a wall of pinned-up student projects, or visualizing how an idea might unfold, our first impressions give us momentum.
They move us forward, even when we don’t know the destination.
Final Thoughts
First impressions are an essential part of creative work.
They help push us through the hazy, messy process, even if it means we might end up “going back to the drafting table” (not that anyone’s using drafting tables these days).
My habit of scanning students’ work before truly listening? Turns out, it’s my own version of “active” listening—just with more looking and less obvious nodding.
But those knee-high boots? Still gathering dust in the basement, a testament to the fact that first impressions can be both hits and misses. In design, though, they’re often the spark we need to get started.
Life Outside of Design Studio 