Architectural illustrators play a supporting and essential role

Architectural illustrators play a supporting and essential role in the process of rendering designs for structures and buildings of all kinds. This skill set allows for architectural firms to maintain healthy relationships between the client and the contractor. This is essential in the long, and sometimes difficult and expensive, process required to carry a design from dream to reality. A accomplished architectural illustrator should also be aware of the wide range of techniques available to the professional.  

The way in which clients hire architectural illustrators may depend on the specific type of structure involved. Industrial and commercial clients, for instance, may deal with illustrators only through large architectural firms. People proactively involved in designing a residential building for themselves, on the other hand, may directly engage illustratrors to craft designs for them. Moreover, regardless of whether the building involved is a house, factory or storefront, people can choose between specialized illustrators or illustrator and architect partnerships.

Illustrators can allow clients to conceive of how different details will be used in a structure. For example, illustrations might render the landscape surrounding the house, industrial workplace or commercial facility. Design drafts could also lay out the details of a building's floor plan and interior. Architectural illustrators effectively create models uniting all of these different elements, most effectively with 3D software. Builders can also take advantage of illustrators by employing them to create images of homes to show to potential buyers. In short, people involved in the home or workplace construction process should never overlook the benefits potentially offered by architectural illustratos.

Get Paid, Not Played!

Good news: Senators Robach and McDonald have both signed on as co-sponsors of the Freelancer Payment Protection Act.
 
This crucial win puts us in a much stronger position to get it passed because both senators sit on the Labor Committee – the group that needs to review our bill. Even better, Senator Robach is the committee’s chairman.
 
And it’s a direct result of your work: many of you attended meetings with your senators to lobby them, and provided your own personal stories of nonpayment so we could share them with legislators.
 
That’s what it takes: all of us coming together to make our voices heard. And it’s working.
 
Please visit Senator Robach's Facebook page and email Senator McDonald to thank them and let them know we’re grateful for and counting on their ongoing support of freelancers.

 
Best,
 
Sara Horowitz
Founder and Executive Director

P.S. We’re not letting up now: we’re sending a new member’s story every week about how deadbeat clients affect their livelihood. If you have a story you’d like to tell, please sign in to share it in The Freelance Life.

Deadlines

Ideally an assignment is given enough time in advance to allow ample time for proper thought and execution. Like it or not,  the tyranny of the deadline is one of the harshest facts of an illustrator's life.  The sooner you learn to live with it the better. It is also an excellent teacher; having to meet a deadline is a sure way to developed skills and temperament demanded for quick competent drawings.

Employ Your Services

Average laymen, including many actively enaged in construction and development, find it extremely difficult to visualize the project from bulky plans, elevations, details, diagram, and other specifications included in a set of working drawings. Your knack for translating them into attractive three-dimensional form will be a major reason for others to employ your services

Sophistication and Competition

Today success in the field is difficult for any proffessional who does not develop his skills quickly enough to keep abreast of trends. Sharpen Your Pencil

The success of an illustration depends on how well it tells a particular story or suits a purpose, rather than on how it was produced.

Why should I register my work if copyright protection is automatic?

Registration is recommended for a number of reasons. Many choose to register their works because they wish to have the facts of their copyright on the public record and have a certificate of registration.  

Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation. Finally, if registration occurs within 5 years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in a court of law.

7 Essential Red Flags to Watch Out for in New Clients

Working with clients is one of the most difficult parts of being a architectural illustrator.

It is a challenge which we face each and every day, regardless of whether we work in-house, as freelancers, or as agency owners.

Some clients are great, while others leave us tearing our hair our and wondering why we felt the need to subject ourselves to this line of work.

While some problems with clients can be put down to poor communication by both parties, many times we can identify clients which are going to be difficult before we even start working with them.

You can read the article here

Legal Title

Legal title doesn't refer to the name of a rendering but rather who owns it. Say a client sees your 3D rendering portfolio, falls in love with your work and commissions you for a $1500.00 rendering, and gives you a deposit on the spot (with cash, no less). The second she gives you the money, your client become the owner and title "passes" from you to her-that is, if she pays you the full $1500.00. In the real world, of course, few people pay right away. And if you're partially paid (deposit) she gives you $750.00 now and plans to pay you another $750.00 in a month - you only keep title to the rendering for as long as you actually hold on to it (that is, keep it on your server or wherever). By letting your client take the rendering, you're giving her title to it - even though she hasn't fully paid you! She still owes you $750.00, but you don't own the rendering anymore.

It is easy (and lawful) to get around this default title rule. All you have to do is state on your invoice:

Ttitle will not pass until payment is received in full or Paid in full upon completion.

This makes it clear that you are not letting your client become the owner of the rendering - even if she's already received the file - until she's paid for it in full.

Another straightforward way to prevent title passing before you're fully paid is to keep the rendering, or watermark it, until you're fully paid.

Value your work:

Newer 3D artist often undervalue their prices out of humility or overvalue them in light of the tremendous amount of work and passion that went into them. To minimize these tendencies, you have to separate the value you place on your 3D renderings from its final price. What you think a 3D rendering is worth should factor into its price you want for it, but there are other factors, too.

Architects and Illustrators

We architectural illustrators have a great deal in common. That's why we all get along so well. But there's something about us that may seem a little surprising. When it comes to how we deal with our clients, there are as many methods as there are illustrators. No two are the same.

Well, maybe it isn't all that surprising. A lot of us are self-employed mavericks who enjoy the independence that our career offers, so why would we want to imitate anyone else? As a result, when it comes to our business relationships with our most faithful and dedicated patrons — architects — anything goes. Maybe there should be a few guidelines?

Style

Let's start with how we work. Some of us prefer that our clients give us complete information about a project and then let us vanish until we have finished the job and presented it to wild acclaim. Others want to keep the lines of communication open constantly, avoiding any surprises at the end, pleasant or unpleasant. Some illustrators like projects in which everything has been worked out complete to the last detail. Others would rather have vague instructions — the less information the better — allowing them to create their images almost from scratch.

These opposites describe two poles in the architectural illustrator continuum. At one end, is the illustrator as supplier, selling an artistic product to a client for a price. At the other end is the illustrator as consultant, interacting with the client and providing advice for a fee according to specific needs. This is product vs process. So the first question to ask is: What does the architect-client want — a product or some advice — an illustration or an illustrator? Or a little of both? More than any other consideration, the answer to this question will provide the basis for the success or failure of the relationship.

Trust

In either case, a second element, one that is extremely important to any relationship, must also exist. That element is trust. In my discussions with other illustrators on this topic, this feature was given highest priority. Illustrators feel that each party must understand and appreciate what the other is trying to do as well as how this is to be accomplished — sympathy and accommodation.

For the architect, this means that the illustrator should be treated fairly. Comments will always be helpful ones and given at the right time. Decisions will always be made by the appropriate person. Deadlines will be honestly arrived at and reported and the effect of changes to the work will be considered. within the context of these deadlines. Some media (watercolor, e.g.) are notoriously difficult to change. Clients should understand the process and the necessary sequence of events, especially if the budget and deadline are fixed. One illustrator told me "Some architects seem to want to make changes solely as a way of maintaining control. But what's really annoying is that their changes are often good ones."

For the illustrator, the responsibilities are even greater. Hired for her expertise, the illustrator is being well paid to perform a vital (perhaps critical) function. First, she must meet her clients requirements regarding budget and deadline, but she must equal or surpass the client's expectations regarding quality of work. The illustrator should maintain portfolio samples that are appropriate to the job and represent an accurate example of current capabilities. She should be familiar with and understand, as much as possible, the architect's design philosophy and intent. As discussed above, she should appreciate the degree of involvement, camaraderie, and discussion that the architect is comfortable with. Most importantly, she should understand exactly what the illustrations are to be used for.

Function

This last requirement is the result of the illustrator's unique experience. Architecture in the twenty-first century involves the work of many, many specialists. No one architect can ever possess all the knowledge required. Illustrators are specialists in the communication of architectural ideas. If there is some particular aspect of the project that needs to be communicated in a particular way, it is the illustrator's job to know how to do that. If the architect is having trouble connecting his design intent with the design execution, it is the illustrator's job to find that connection and to help express it. If the project just needs a drop-dead gorgeous image to keep it afloat, then go to it.

OK, Money

But how can we leave the discussion without mentioning money? The illustrators that I spoke to were generally in favor of receiving more, but mostly agreed that they were currently compensated adequately. But, they all want to know: What is the deal with giving the illustrator a week to do the work and then waiting four months to pay for it? Any and all responses to this question will be gratefully entertained.

Just as we illustrators all have different ways of working, we also all have different reasons for having chosen this profession, although we would probably all agree that we do this work because we like it. We chose it — some of us even invented it — for ourselves. Architects tell me the same thing: the work is rewarding, enjoyable and meaningful. Working together, architects and illustrators can expect to accomplish a great deal. And enjoy doing it.