Don't wear red. It only makes you look naked when your face turns red.

Or at least it does for me.

take some acting classes. from me...

Take a public speaking class. Preferably one where the instructor videotapes your presentation and then plays it back publicly.

It's painful for EVERYONE who must endure it, but your presence will improve so, so, so much after seeing the annoying/illegible things you do in front of an audience.

Oh man that gives me chills just thinking about it. Oh man. I have been meaning to take one of those courses for about 12 years now...

thanks, I guess that helps me feel better.

Don't let this little thing stop you from going to grad school.

do it more often. the more you speak in public the easier it gets...

i still get a bit nervous. when you see the likes to thom mayne (above) in your jury... it's hard not to.

though i've found in grad school nerves aren't so much of what gets you. it's the lack of sleep. 5 hours of sleep in 3 days... final reviews... yeah. not so good. i'm about a sharp as a wooden spoon at that point.

They say he carved it himself... from a bigger spoon.

i learnt from an intern here, that before her presentations she always drinks 2 glasses of champagne.

I had been in your situation be4...every time I did a presentation, I felt like I just wanna run away and spoke as fast I could, so I would get over it. However, it had never gone well..I found that if you wanna overcome ur fear with public speaking- First, you need to participate in ur class discussion whenever you have a chance to cuz this would help you feel comfortable with other people and you could get used to it. This also trains you to response quickly when people question you about your presentation. Secondly, if you have to present in huge group like an auditorium, 1-take a deep breath, 2-image all the people around you are very small, or they are like little kids and they must listen to you.

hope this will work for you

these days, two glasses of champagne would have me drooling and babbling in the corner while the slides advanced themselves automatically.

the ramones and the mamas and the papas each have three dead members and only one living original member.

the critics are just people. they may think they are more but they aren't. you just got to be more organized than someone like me who will gladly blab away in front of anyone who will listen. and those who won't. but beware the tears of a clown when no one's around.

For me, by the time I'm presenting a project, I usually feel really comfortable with my critic. And since I don't play the who's who of black costumes game, I don't even know who the jury is. So for me, I'm just talking about some stuff to some people that I don't know or care who they are. And in some rare cases, there are people on the jury that I have so little respect for, that I cold give a crap what they think because they have no bearing on my life whatsoever. Seriously, after grad school and seeing it from the inside, the mysticism of "the architect" is gone. I'm far from an amazing talent, but i'm not really intimidated. It's so much smoke and mirrors. Don't let people at reviews get under your skin.

By the way, I'm not a great presenter and have transcended to magically public speaking land. It's actually really only arch school reviews where I'm really comfortable. For example, by the end of the semester I usually present then just nod when they ask questions because arch juries just like to hear themselves talk. They don't ask about your projects. I mean, they don't REALLY ask about your projects. I think after this final review, as soon as I'm done, I may just end up pissing on the floor like an excited puppy.

10 deep breaths can do wonders for nerves, it makes you focus. not the kind of deep breaths you take at the doctor, just a nice even concentrated breath, and do all 10. even during your presentation, just think about breathing, making sure you are taking those breaths. your breathing will always be there for you to focus on when you need it.

use your nerves to your advantage. tell yourself, "i'm nervous because I want to do well", don't sitting there thinking, "omigod I'm so nervous i could pee my pants, omigod, omigod, this sucks. get me outta here."

smile during your presentations, give off a little friendliness and confidence - humble humaness, speak loudly and clearly and purposefully. make eye contact with a friendly face in your audience.

heres something you could also do.
when assembling your thoughts. write them down on note cards. type up an outline of your ideas to hand out to the jury and even your disinterested studiomates. this will help you stay on task.

...thinking about your work as someone else while discussing...I always assess my work as if it were an experiement..so many people..use.."I" way too much...

...my secret weapon...GUM!

I knwo it sounds bad..but Gum is an acceptable thing to have during discussion if the Jurors aren't too pretentous. Gum helps me keep my face relaxed and jives me along, even through the Ripping of new assholes...

Harness the power of GUM!

first of all, being an architect is very much about public speaking & public presentation, being quoted in newspapers and often being able to think on your feet. in short, you are a public figure in your community because you are shaping your community. if you want to avoid this "publicity" you can still work in the profession as there is plenty of room for cad monkeys...but you better not start complaining when you're unhappy with your meager salary.

secondly, the nature of presentations & crits that you face in grad school is very different than most of what you will encounter in the profession. more often than not you will be presenting to a city council or a review board that doesn't give a shit about your architecture they just want to know if the brick color will be suitably bland enough to avoid a public outcry. the good news is that people generally like architects...be thankful you're not a lawyer having to deal with the natural skepticism that everybody has in dealing with them. my old real estate professor always advised the young would-be real estate moguls of the world to nver take a lawyer to a public meeting, always take an architect instead. we're kind of like puppies...the public tends to adore us & our hopeful dreams/visions.

lastly, since i've done tons of presentations over the years and generally love it, here's a few tips: 1- slow down. in fact, i think it's almost impossible to talk too slowly. especially if you have any kind of visual element involved because then people really are trying to process alot of information while you talk. 2- if you suddenly find yourself feeling uncomfortable looking directly at your audience, turn your head & focus towards your work. it's usually easier to talk about your work when you are looking directly at it. this type of motion or body gesture also directs the audience's gaze away from you and towards the work (whether it's a model, drawing, powerpoint, etc). you're now on sidelines, spotlight is on your work. feels better already, doesn't it? lastly, preparation always helps. don't hesitate to practice and engage in role-playing with others. it might feel silly, but it helps. when i first started in my old sales career, we used to spend days doing this. definitely worth the effort.

Check this out: Architect's Essentials of Presentation Skills

puddles is 100% correct... as a professional architect a good part of your job will be making presentations of one type or another... whether it be to city council, design review boards, current clients, potential clients, etc... i became comfortable during undergrad in the studio of one particularly notorious professor... i hated him at the time, but what i got from his studio more than anything else was the ability to speak in public and defend/describe my projects clearly... his would always famously interrupt presentations screaming "SAY IT ANOTHER WAY! THAT'S BULLSHIT! SAY IT ANOTHER WAY!"...

also, in my experience at least, grad school crits are much different than undergrad... it is much more of a peer review philosophy, rather than the tear you down to build you up atmosphere of undergrad...

because of that professor i now have no problems speaking in front of large or small groups of people, speaking to newspaper reporters, or even talking with a television camera and microphone in my face... i think that one of the keys is to realize that the people that you're talking to are just ordinary people, whether they are professors, reporters, council members, mayors, whatever, they are still just everyday people...

when presenting projects at school i think that it is important to be confident in your design and know why you made each design move... have a justification for everything that you do... until you get really comfortable it is handy to have some notes available, but ideally you'll get to the point where you won't need them and everything just comes naturally... if someone asks a question that you need a second to develop an answer to, just ask them to clarify what they're asking and use that time to develop your response.

wow, yeah. televison cameras & microphones...talk about being put on the spot, just wait until the first time that happens to you.

many people find that remaining confined to one spot during a presentation makes the experience more intimidating ... I find that I generate tons of nervous energy before and during any public presentation ... planning my program so that I can move around as I speak helps me dissipate that nervous energy and also adds energy to the presentation itself ... it forces the audience to move their heads as I move around the room and it helps them stay engaged in the presentation. This movement also allows me to make eye-contact with a lot of different people sitting in the audience, which I think people listening tend to appreciate.

if none of the above comments help...resort to ventriloquism...

all nighters the night before is the key... be too exhausted to be nervous, it has never failed me, although i have never not pulled an allnighter before a final review...

...And on the contrary, I find it's helpful to try to be well-rested. I am much more comfortable presenting when I feel that I look my best (or more accurately, I'm distinctly uncomfortable when I look awful), so I try to pick something nice, yet comfortable, to wear.

How are you well rested before a studio presentation? That is very impressive. You must be some kind of superhero.

I've never finished without a couple all nighters in a row. I'm always so sleep deprived and over caffinated. I agree about looking good though. I always pull the shards of balsa and globs of adhesive goo out of my hair and superglue closed any actively bleeding cuts. I think that goes a long way.

haha buckity

usually I'm too nervous about not getting up in the morning for the crit than the crit itself. I usually have someone calling me in the morning and 3 alarms set. Once I slept through the alarms and the phone calls and woke up on my own right before the crit. Makes me nervous just thinking about it.

i have to say i definitely suffered from similar problems while in undergrad. i had 4 breakthroughs that i used in grad school:

1. have a glass of wine before the crit (during grad school this turned into have a glass of wine during the crit as well...it's amazing how holding something calms the nerves)

2. dress as well as the professors - don't come in all dishevelled looking like you crawled out from under your desk...it comes across as unprofessional and the critiques usually will be harsher on you.

3. bring a chair to the crit - don't stand the entire time...instead present standing up, then when you want to engage in the critique pull up your chair and engage your critics in a dialogue about your work...they will treat it more as a discussion as well.

4. whatever you do - no matter how good of idea it sounds like - DO NOT GO TO A REVIEW AFTER PULLING AN ALL-NIGHTER...you will sound like an idiot. trust me, there is nothing worse as a critic than staring at a student who is barely functional and attempting to have an intelligent conversation with them. my rule of thumb was to always sleep at least 4 hours before a review.

good luck and definitely don't let this keep you from grad school.

I agree with futureboy on all points except....

where did you go to school that drinking a glass of wine during crit was common practice?

The chair thing works for me too, I was sitting down to start my last review and then stood up until one reviewer said, "go ahead....we can sit down, you should be able to as well"

Also, if you have a little something to give them to pass around and look at (process book, notes, video,) etc. it distracts them and takes some of the pressure off you. Careful though, this leads to a lot of "can you repeat all of what you just said? I was more interested in this thing you gave me than what you were saying".

i would also say that stage fright should not hold you back from grad school...use stage fright to make you a better communicator than your more loquacious and less nervous classmates. write a short, cogent presentation beforehand, practice it until you have it right, put it on cards or a piece of paper...and then at the crit, get that mutha over with.

i went to sci-arc...everybody drank at their crits there...except, of course, those under 21.

The reason people get nervous presenting is because they CARE who their audience is, and they're worried that they'll lose respect/face if they screw up.

Honestly, the only way to present well is not to care if you present well. Talk about what you're passionate about as if you're talking to your best friend.

Many jury members are just hacks and not good architects. But their whole reason for existing is to intimidate young architecture students. They wear all black and angular eyeglasses and don't smile at anything you say. It's an ACT. These people aren't that smart or that cool. But they make you think they matter, and suddenly you CARE about what they think. And you get nervous.

I remember Jeffrey Kipnis being on a couple of my juries eight years ago. He had all this notoriety at that time, and said some incredibly cutting things that sounded smart (but weren't.) And I was intimidated by him.

In hindsight, he was a hack and a blowhard, and rude. He treated the students like morons exalted by his presence. Why did I care what he thought? Where is he now?

Talk about what you love, and don't care as much about the people in front of you.

Thank far west. that was very insightfull.

Hyperdraw, I can relate... Just don't use it as an excuse and you'll get over it...

farwest1, I'm sorry to hear Kipnis had such a negative impact... He's definitely hit or miss; if he doesn't offend he has a helluva lot to learn from.

He's still doing his thing at OSU operating in a Simon Cowell kinda way; looking after the greater good of the medium but coming off as an asshole to most...

Vado: Which on of the Ramones is still alive.....tell me it isn't the Drummer....cause he is just a plain scarry guy!

to answer above - well, I honestly wasn't always well-rested, but I did always get in a few hours of rest at least. If nothing else, a long hot bath + blowdrying the hair did wonders for rejuvenation, even without any sleep! Also, I have a design degree, but did not study architecture. (My interdisciplinary department was architecture-biased, and many of the professors had an architecture background, so trust me, I got the full Crit experience, but we weren't only discussing architectural projects.)

But most of the presentations I've done weren't presentations of my academic work. Even during school, outside of the normal in-class pinups and finals, I did some other kinds of presentation. Talking about the schools to incoming students and their parents, moderating or being on panel discussions, introducing speakers at lecture series. I am pretty sure that my early years doing various public performance things like piano recitals, ice-skating competitions, dance, singing, acting, choir, playing in bands, etc. drastically reduced my capacity for stage-fright. So I guess all those damn lessons were good for something, even though I wasn't good at any of them :) One of my friends has been taking improv comedy classes to help with her presentation/stage presence... more fun, more interesting, less douche-baggy than a Corporate Public Speaking class!

First harsh crit in undergrad was an example made of someone that was chewing gum. Don't chew gum during a presentation.

have a drink (just one)...after lunch, breathe & relax