Nest at Centennial Crossing Renderings
Often I am asked for a ballpark price without seeing any drawings. I don’t request the drawing files, but I do request to see the project PDFs. I don’t give ballpark numbers without first seeing the project. I know the trend overseas is flat fees, but that doesn’t work for anyone unless you are looking for something fast and cheap, which I don’t compete with. As I write this, I am reminded of how sometimes people get disgruntled if I don’t reply to their request with a number without seeing any project documents. Also, many times, other illustrators want to see what they should charge, so they pretend to be a prospective client, so asking some simple questions allows me to qualify quote requests.
The Nest at Centennial Crossing renderings is a prime example of why I don’t quote without reviewing the PDFs. When I ask for PDFs, I might get a reply like, it is a single-family home. Honestly, I illustrate 40 thousand square feet homes, so I can only assume they mean an average American single-family home, but that is still too vague. The Nest at Centennial Crossing is a series of small single-family homes. However, they pack a lot of detail. The roof was pretty complicated, just as complicated as a much larger home. Two of these homes had custom brick, both running bond and stacked, so I had to custom build both. The landscape plan had a dozen specific species, which I had to custom model. The homes are clustered, so I had to use some photography tricks, which greatly extend rendering times. All this has to be taken into account when quoting a project.
I love these homes, they were designed well, and a lot of detail was put into them. Had I not requested the PDFs, I would have assumed they were the typical American single-family home, which they are not.
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