5 Tips For Clients – Architectural Visualisation in 2022

This is an article we did for Marketing & Creative Handbook.

It’s fair to say, alot has changed over the past few years, placing new and additional pressure on construction projects. A buyer’s first interaction with your project may be a fleeting glance at an image on social media – this is a crucial millisecond for the project.

The quality of your marketing imagery goes beyond click-through statistics, it’s the first step in building the brand of your project. One outstanding image is better than ten weak images, allocate your budget appropriately.

The following five tips are intended to inform all construction and design projects and could have dramatic benefits for you in the 2022 market.

1. Big Investment Requires Big Concepts

Construction is expensive however, concept design iterations are not. Utilise concept visuals to push the boundaries of the project brief. Keep them as simple massing blocks with local landmarks and people for scale and reference. This can empower the design in unexpected ways.

2. Visionary Ideas

As the client or designer, if you have something in your minds eye, source some imagery online and provide it to the visualisation team – an online search or Pinterest are perfect to begin with. This is a powerful method to convey your intentions with materials, lighting, activity or landscaping.

3. Planning Uncertainty

When progressing with the final imagery or animation, we all appreciate some areas of the design may not be fully resolved. The best practice is to highlight this from the beginning or when it arises. Design changes can be factored in from the outset, no-one likes incurred costs and some visualisation companies use this as an additional revenue stream.

4. Output Potential

The final media is usually delivered as still imagery or animations, there are however, alot more options available. Depending on your marketing strategy, the Visualisation Studio may provide additional services which could compliment your strategy. Once the 3D model is created, it can be utilised to generate additional content and may not cost as much as you might think. Bear in mind, this is a conversation you should have at the beginning of the process as production is refined for each output.

5. Social Marketing

When images are shown online, Photographers tend to have their name accompanying their work. It might be an opportunity to negotiate something beneficial with the Visualisation Studio in exchange for showing their name with the images.

When images are shown online, Photographers tend to have their name accompanying their work. It might be an opportunity to negotiate something beneficial with the Visualisation Studio in exchange for showing their name with the images.

Maybe these tips have sparked some new ideas or consolidated some existing ones – the goal is to provide our clients with the best information, imagery and professional services.

Niall Cochrane is the Founder of North Visual Studio, a Glasgow based Architectural Visualisation Agency specialising in the creation of world-class imagery, animations and Visual Effects.

GLASGOW ORGANIC BUILDING 3D CONCEPT

We have been playing about with organic building concepts recently and decided to merge one with aerial footage provided by our friends over at Turkey Red Media. It's a fun little project that allows us to explore ideas that wouldn't stand a chance of being built but definitely push the envelope.

The potential to view and understand the massing, materials and visual impact of a building is given a generous boost over static photo-montages when merged with aerial footage. We appreciate it's not a new technique but it's definitely under-utilised when assessing the viability of a building and the potential to sell off plan.

Architecture in Scotland would benefit from utilising this technique to expand on clear communication of designs and also to explore ideas that otherwise wouldn't see the light of day.

Turkey Red Media

North Visual Studio in Australia

We have been commissioned to create 3 CG images for proposed cottages at the World Heritage Nightcap National Park which is 30 minutes inland from Australia's Gold Coast. The first image of the exterior was used in an article by Heartland Magazine to communicate how the cottages will nestle into the site. It's a beautiful and tranquil location so the images need to reflect these special qualities. The second two images are currently in production and will show the Living Room and the Bathroom.

https://www.facebook.com/nightcapridge/

https://www.heartlandmagazine.com.au/nightcap-ridge-to-benefit-from-nsw-government-funding/

 

SISTER Website

You can check out our sister website which expands on our architectural visualisation work and includes the full spectrum of our digital creations;

http://www.niallcochrane.co.uk/

It includes Architectural Visualisation, VFX (Visual Effects), Matte Painting, Animation and TV commercials that we have worked on ourselves or as part of a team.

The industries we have created visualisation graphics for include construction, marketing, oil and gas, renewables, sport, entertainment, TV, film to name a few.