What you can expect from the first conversation with your designer
Before the lay-out process of your dissertation will start, you will have a conversation via phone to discuss your wishes and preferences. In this article, we will explain the course of this first conversation with your designer. In a previous article we have already elaborated on how to start your thesis lay-out as well-prepared as possible. Furthermore, you can find an overview of the layout process of your dissertation on our website.
The first conversation with your designer will follow as soon as possible after you have chosen for Personal Thesis. Firstly, you will receive an email from us in which we tell you a little more about who your designer will be. Within two days, your designer will reach out to you to discuss a good moment to have your first phone call. During this conversation, you will not only get to know your designer but you will also discuss your thesis lay-out and the planning of this process.
Tip: on request, our designers will have no problem to have a call with you out of office hours. At the end of your promotion process, we can imagine that you will be busy enough already.
1. Getting to know your designer
We are named Personal Thesis for a reason; before we start designing we would like to get to know you a little and hear more about the research you have performed. We would also like to know what you are currently doing or what you are planning to do once your promotion process has been completed.
2. Planning
If you are well-prepared, you will be completely aware of all the deadlines that are important in your planning. In most cases, your designer will know already about your deadlines. However, it is always recommended to discuss your planning again before you start your thesis lay-out. Perhaps there are some special circumstances that need to be accounted for, like holidays or a (upcoming) pregnancy. (Are you not sure if you are already well-prepared for the layout of your dissertation? As we have already mentioned before, you can find more tips on how be as well-prepared for your thesis lay-out as possible in our knowledge base).
The first conversation with your designer is also the time to discuss whether or not all your texts are completely finished. It is no problem if for example your acknowledgements still need some work, but please let your designer know as soon as possible. When you do, your designer is able to remind you when the final texts need to be handed in.
3. Thesis lay-out
Finally, you will of course discuss the layout of your dissertation during this phone call. It is often best to give your designer some freedom and to not discuss every little detail. In our opinion, the quality of the end results will improve if you just discuss a preferred direction for the layout and let the creativity of your designer do the rest. This direction could be for example a modern, minimalistic, classic or happy design. Furthermore, we recommend using examples, for example of dissertations from your colleagues or the examples of thesis layouts on our website.
Let’s get to work!
After discussing these three important subjects, your designer will be completely up-to-date and ready to get to work. Firstly, your designer will make a layout test. This is a PDF in which you can see exactly what the lay-out of your thesis will look like. Read more on this layout test of your dissertation in our knowledge base.