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This article definitely got me questioning my approach :-)

Liked your open minded article Juraj! Thank You for your time to put it together. I am always looking for creative paths at work too, by trying them out. Cheers Franz

What an refreshing, enlightening and informative article. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this with us. Kobus

Thank you Terri, I am glad you liked it :- )

Fantastic article Juraj. Thanks for taking the time to write it up. I hail from a fine arts background, and as I'm not as technically geared as many others in our industry I have often been frustrated in the past with the many technical hurdles to overcome to achieve the artistic concept I had in mind from the outset. So I for one am very excited that the software is becoming more of a tool in the artists hands than something that will most likely make your head hurt at SOME stage in your project. I have always said that what sets good visualisers apart from run-of-the-mill ones is that artistic eye. For hundreds of years, artists like Caravaggio have seen the importance of light and composition - without these fundamentals an image will always just be an image, instead of an artwork that is not easily forgotten. We have lots to learn from great artists, photographers, and the best artist of all - nature itself. I'm so often discontent with my end result as I see it lacks so much of the imperfect beauty I can see in nature - if only we had all the time in the world to detail these things...or 15 minions to help! So thank you Juraj. Will be coming back to it again.

Agreed Justin, For us it's all about the underlying need of the image/s. Questioning to the second, third, fourth level - who is the customer and what does it need to do for them. Only after that do we thin about how to achieve that artistically and own the creative and leadership of that collateral. It's vital that the visualiser is understood to be the expert in expression and communication of the message and it's their responsibility to extract that from the client in order to be able to produce imagery that delivers against that need. We have to remember that no matter how many images clients commission they are rarely experts in creative communication and will naturally default to the same practices they.. and everyone else.. is using. Whether you're in-house or a 3rd Party studio earning the client's respect and showing the creative leadership through understanding and your own language of imagery is how we produce great work that stands out and captures the viewer's attention

I must admit that sometimes that conversation sometimes happens far too late in the process (often at the last hour) which leads to the most compromised product in the end where both client and ourselves are disappointed. Interestingly and rather satisfyingly, the projects that we are given more artistic input often come out far more successfully than either of us expected.

Ironically as the project progressed the comments and design alterations she made, it got closer to everything else out there. Its a risk/ fear thing I think

This actually happened very recently to us. The project had approved rather brave direction but as it got near to finish with lot of changes he...perhaps panicked or not, and just turned it down and requested it to the turn into the most generic look you can imagine even providing reference that almost made me stop breathing (in bad way). Some partial understanding I was given by 3rd party involved is that (this particular Country/City) market is slowing down a bit and leading developers to be lot more conservative. But I guess this is unavoidable. I've been reading some interviews in ComputerArt magazine (focused on advertising and branding world) and one very renowned, experimental studio answered that they still need to do a lot of work in convincing clients to not go down the lowest common denominator way (and bringing their competitors work and asking them to copy it :- ).

Agreed Justin, For us it's all about the underlying need of the image/s. Questioning to the second, third, fourth level - who is the customer and what does it need to do for them. Only after that do we thin about how to achieve that artistically and own the creative and leadership of that collateral. It's vital that the visualiser is understood to be the expert in expression and communication of the message and it's their responsibility to extract that from the client in order to be able to produce imagery that delivers against that need. We have to remember that no matter how many images clients commission they are rarely experts in creative communication and will naturally default to the same practices they.. and everyone else.. is using. Whether you're in-house or a 3rd Party studio earning the client's respect and showing the creative leadership through understanding and your own language of imagery is how we produce great work that stands out and captures the viewer's attention

As one who is working in-house, our focus has been shifting more to producing the more polished stuff. The "design" orientated work is being handled by the architects with thanks to Revit, even that has had to improve in quality. Quite frankly I am happy about that. As Nic said, we are an expensive necessity so it makes more sense to use us in that role rather than the other. It has been a slow (over 10 years) and hard fought evolution. In many ways driven by arch-viz studios high quality and our clients expectations. In turn I believe it is also pushing the studios to deliver a vastly different product. As you say, making them specialize and develop a signature style and product. One area where we will not be competitive/ profitable is animation and film production. At least not until we have a significant restructure in management and pipeline to handle them effectively. With regards to finding your own style, its something that needs to be taken more seriously. Recently I had a client comment that all renders, in particular in the residential market, all look the same and is making it harder to differentiate one project from an other. Ironically as the project progressed the comments and design alterations she made, it got closer to everything else out there. Its a risk/ fear thing I think. If you go too far out there you may just scare away the very people you are trying to attract.

Juraj, your article was fantastic.. thanks for sharing! Nikos, that Jeff mentions above, is the course-founder of Creative Lighting and we work very closely together. reading your article and the comments below echo what we are all about at CL. If anyone would like to discuss this topic and how we're working to change thinking around visualisation for both artist and client then please do reach out to us https://www.creativelighting.co/contact/ Shaun

Thanks Juraj, its actually the Australian arm of Squint that has become independent. Squint UK had moved more into kids TV and food and beverage but there was still an appetite in Australia for design and architecture focused work that has increasingly become our niche. Agree with the sentiment of increasing specialisation within the industry which is natural as it matures. There is certainly a place for everyone and the gaps between marketing imagery, architectural communications / strategy work and design / creative tech for architecture is growing opening up new avenues for everyone. I dont think there are many true one stop shops around anymore. Justin this is what I mean by limited shelf life - studios and artists that don't specialise (and then expand based on their strengths) I think risk being overtaken. Its not uncommon now for different arch vis studios to do the stills, film and then external creative and app or suite install.

Nice to see your comment NIC, just 10 minutes ago finished reading about the rebrand of Squint/Opera. Kind of sad to see that name go, it was the coolest name in the industry. Just like Justin, would love to read more if you elaborate. Regarding our studio, we do work about 50:50 where one half is pure creative, advertising sort of archviz work (or real-estate if purists would complain) were very big almost unlimited independence. The other is is service based, where we are almost external part of team working on project along many other involved parties (architects, developers,..). I am not sure if the other part will that massively overtaken the industry, but I agree that due to size of many architectural companies, their internal technical departments have largely advanced their options forward. It might be that that will be the necessary focal point for larger archviz studios, but smaller ones will be able to specialize in smaller niches and those will grow in number, until "archviz" is no longer even relevant name for larger part of us.

There is a no global school for arch vis artists and they are in high demand but also chronically unskilled and generally overpaid with a limited shelf life. Look at how many creative coding and games graduates there are around - loads. Which ever studio (existing or new) moves strongly into this field building on top of the existing industry will have first mover advantage and will do very well for the next 10 years.

Good points, could you elaborate more on the "limited shelf life" comment

Good write up here and a solid viewpoint, especially for residential and marketing images. Our business is changing much faster than anyone in the industry is aware, no longer are arch vis studios the leaders in technology or reinventing processes. This has swung back to architecture studios being at the center of this change. Most arch vis studios currently focus on marketing images which are in my opinion a dead end that places arch vis at the very pointy end of a long stick. I would like to aim to be more services based and project partner focused to elevate what we do back to a place which places more values on our skills and background. There is a no global school for arch vis artists and they are in high demand but also chronically unskilled and generally overpaid with a limited shelf life. Look at how many creative coding and games graduates there are around - loads. Which ever studio (existing or new) moves strongly into this field building on top of the existing industry will have first mover advantage and will do very well for the next 10 years.

I wouldn't mind AI dealing with those clients who say, "Keep rendering me options, I'll know what I like when I see it." This is a fantastic article. This would be a great round table or even a reddit style AMA in the future.

get it to drive your realtime tour though your building could be fun

what like spiders crawling in your mouth whilst you are sleeping? creepy

having said that, I really dont like the idea of cyber implants :)

You'll never know. The assimilation will happen while you're sleeping :)

having said that, I really dont like the idea of cyber implants :)