As part of a special lecture for graduate students currently preparing their thesis proposals, Stan Allen discusses five canonical figures—Robert Venturi, Peter Eisenman, Aldo Rossi, Toyo Ito, Rem Koolhaas—in terms of their transition from academia to independent careers. He notes commonalities—pursuing both writing and design as parallel tracks, sensitivity to how their work was photographed, defining colleagues and predecessors—but stresses how they differ in detail, demonstrating that there is no single formula.