The Clash

For any of us old enough to remember that English punk rock band, ‘The Clash’, those two words can occur quite often in the planning stages of any construction project, inside or out. So how does one go about adding synergy rather than creating friction when jumping off the diving board into a full-fledged project?

Remember that paper is helpful. When you see a layout, a sketch, a thought or vision drawn out, it solidifies the beginning point. Although many of us have difficulty comprehending 3-Dimensional, there is a reason behind the madness of paper. Don’t overlook it as part of your initial step before you delve in, shovel first. There’s neat technology that assists now with taking the hard-to-understand 3-D world and turning it into a real image. But you need those correct dimensions, i.e., grades/topo to work with first. Never overlook those basic steps just because you can’t get your noodle around that initial yet crucial phase of design. Letting what you don’t understand throw you for a loop only starts you off on the wrong foot.

So before you go gung ho with the shovels and start digging before a plan is in place, take this first simple step of paper to bring it all together. And don’t let the 3-D aspect set you off kilter. Whether your project is small or large-scale, the paper process puts it in the context of the whole.

To switch gears and end with the typical quote of the day, not by ‘The Clash’ but by Tom Landry, who amazingly enough sums up this whole design thing ‘to a T.’ “Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” How perfectly stated; by a man who really understood how to win the game.

Image of the Gnomes from the Internet (I just liked it and thought it fit with the title!)

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