Racing the Clock

I woke up this morning with the reality of having exactly 2 weeks before I begin interviewing nearly 70 professionals in the automotive textile industry.  Every day is now part of the count down!

This Week

I'm giving myself 1 more week to focus on researching the factors that have influenced trends in body cloth motif, scale, and color.  During these past few weeks, I have also been researching trend cycles.  Although this information will not be presented in the interviews, I hope to compare previously observed trend cycles with those I have uncovered.  I have found some very unique historical research such as that by Richardson and Krobler, which tracks women's fashion through 3 centuries of changing dress width and length, or Robinson's studies on men's facial hair and American automobile size.  Other trends that I'm sure have impacted this industry include national and expendable income, increase in globalization and the impact of foreign automotive markets, and times of war and natural disaster (just to name a few).  I hope to learn about much of this through the interview process, which I'm sure will also reveal many factors I may not have considered.

Analysis

In order to discover factors, I am first acknowledging the cycles, peaks and troughs of motif, scale, and color trends.  I am looking for critical dates and asking the question, "what made this happen?".  The potential factors are limitless.  By noting critical dates first, I should be narrowing my scope to only the factors that had noticeable effects.  

Also this week, I have become a manager (what?).  I have realized that I've gone in a little too deep with the amount of time remaining before I begin interviews.  

How did I get here?  Well, I'm usually wonderful about over-estimating the time it will take to complete a task, and I have been so generous  with each of my due-dates.  I have also been careful about reevaluating my goals with the time remaining at each step.  Reaching out to contacts, however, is what did me in.  Since March, I have been in light contact with a few key players who have helped me organize my list and collect information.  July 1 is the date I set to send initial contact letters to potential interview participants.  It is 3 1/2 weeks later and I am still spending a few hours each day on the phone, replying to emails, or searching for contact information for emails that have bounced back and retirees who have moved.  I knew this would happen- but certainly not to this extent!    

What's the new plan?  The solution was quite simple (although costly).  I have hired 2 of my  very wonderful friends from the College of Textiles, who are well-versed in color, to work with the color analysis, Sara Yasin and Emily Hanhan.  A few weeks ago I created a color table classification system (shown a few posts back) and a spreadsheet for the data to be recorded.  I ran about 7 trial years and realized that my eye was being far too picky and taking far too long.  Sara and Emily are working from 2 different ends of the time spectrum and will meet in the middle.  This process is a simple matter of classification and counting, but it is "mind-numbing" and time-consuming and I just don't think I could be prepared for what August and September have in store for me without their help.  (Thanks ladies!)

So now I have a fun-filled weekend of playing "what are the factors?" and have the goal of leaving the apartment a total of 1 time (yes, I've become a bit of a hermit).  I guess next week I will update on what's in store just 1 week prior to interviews.  Thanks for the support!

Also...I apologize for not adding images of my trend cycles.  We'll all just have to wait until my thesis has been submitted and approved for publications so that I'm protecting myself from all that legal whoop-la.  August 16th you can expects lots of pictures of lots of really amazing cars from Pebble Beach!