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Is this how it's going to look....?

13 July 2011 - By Robert Herrick

Aligning the correct degree of Illustration to match your design


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For better or worse over the past 15 years, architectural illustration has taken on new levels of achievable realism, whilst employing an array of styles and techniques. More recently we're seeing the straight forward desires for "photorealism" pushed further into a range of illustration techniques that work to tell a story that goes far beyond design. Working as an MD/CD at an Illustration studio (visualhouse) i often get cc'd into emails directed towards the project architects asking the same question, "is this how it's going to look...? This question can often be of a positive or negative nature, but it does beg the question, "Why are we being so literal in the nature of our illustration?" Are we trying to push too far with an unresolved design? Maybe we should be telling a story not solely about design but about the context, life and atmosphere that enshroud buildings and their settings. A designer needs to understand the state of his or her proposal before even approaching the idea of illustrating it. This is the process of understanding the key aspects of the design as well as the potential positive or negative impacts that realistically representing in its current state could have. One might say there is a formula for choosing the appropriate nature and level of illustration. In basic terms, this is a designs key aspects listed against their potential for either positive or negative impact; this simple formula gives us a manual gauge by which an appropriate level of illustration can be matched against a variable numerical scale. However formulas are rarely sufficient as, after all, we are talking about art work. We therefore need to delve deeper into the mind of our clients and understand what really turns them on! Let's look at an example, In 2010 David Chipperfield Architects commissioned visualhouse to produce a selection of illustrations for the De Vere Gardens scheme in Kensington, London. The deadline was short and the design was in early stages. The design leaders were able to strike upon the key USPs that the client would focus on. We also needed to throw Chipperfield's unique style of illustration into the mix, in order to ensure continuity and to communicate their brand effectively. From this, the illustrations had a clear direction both in design and artistic style. The illustrations played upon certain features that the client (Qatar Diar) saw favourably and played down those unresolved design aspects that might potentially cause questions and complications. The question does need to be asked as to whether this clear design tailoring and tempering of illustration is a good thing? Should clients see the big picture earlier on in order to iron out potential issues? I believe that each situation and stage of a project needs to be treated differently, this way we can draw focus and direction to different aspects as the design evolves, eventually leading to a smooth and efficient work flow. With todays use of advanced computer generated imagery and the accuracy of 3d modelling, architects are very often baring all and leaving themselves open to criticism. Architectural illustration should not be produced or considered literal but be played upon to tell a story encompassing all areas of architecture.

Robert Herrick visualhouse Managing/Creative Director robert@visualhouse.co.uk Tel +44 (0)20 7751 3188

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