Set your work apart

[glorybound]

So, in the modern world we live it, what are you guys doing to set your work apart? I know some people, who use Revit Architecture to do construction documents, and they are dabbling in the Revit's render feature. The work they are doing is mediocre at best, but the company's they work for, see it as a viable solution for architectural illustrations. We have an architectural intern and she did an animation in SketchUp. The animation was bad, but the director of architecture was impressed. Also this past week, the owner of the company I worked for, asked me to do a rendering for a project we are designing. The owner of the company I work for is neighbors with this client, and was personally interested in them understanding the design, but the architect said that there isn't a budget for that. We are a high end design/build firm, but we think Revit and SketchUp is good enough.

Do we need to be sales people as much as, if not more than, illustrators? How do some companies get top dollar when other company's, who might do much better work, can't sell a job? We paid over 100 grand for our website, and recently had the web develop company make some minor changes, and the bill was over $7000.00. If you charge more do people think they are getting more? What is the social science? Is are industry shooting ourselves in the foot by advertising renderings starting at $295.00?

What are your thoughts?

[flino2004]

depending of what you want to archive the way to show a project can change from handmade to cg. When you want to show ideas to people that can not read plans then sketchup is a good way to go..because it's sketchy, work in progress feel and It works great for showing ideas in realtime.
The problem with realistic renderings is they look finish product, no more input or feedback so people sometimes don't like to see that in early stage of the projects... I don't think that SU or Revit will take your future jobs.. they are part of a long process in Architecture to go from the 1st idea to the get it built.

[JeffG2]

Technological progress continuously lowers entry bar, therefore you must keep climbing higher - and branching out.

[glyph]

what's the website that cost $100k Bobby? - should be something special for that money - but they're getting cheaper year by year too

I lost a job to a magic marker illustrator a while ago - now that may go in and out of fashion, but his style was good and he's pretty much unique - not cheap either!

[plastic_]

Well that's crazy. A normal website costs 5000$, branding and logo included. Small changes a few 100$ max.

For lo-fi renderings, I'm doing a lot of them. I call them 3 hours jobs.
Even with complex & shiny images, I never did a job that took longer than 1 man-week of work.
I should mention, I work for architects only. There is no way one of my clients would pay more than 1500$ per image, so the budget naturally restricts the time I can spend on a project.

[glorybound]

what's the website that cost $100k Bobby? - should be something special for that money - but they're getting cheaper year by year too

I lost a job to a magic marker illustrator a while ago - now that may go in and out of fashion, but his style was good and he's pretty much unique - not cheap either!

www.nor-son.com and that didn't include the branding. The CMS is clunky and I only have access to basic editing. We just paid $7,000 to add social links on the bottom, which should go live today. We were a low budget client for them, to.

[glorybound]

I have been charging between $500 and $1,200 hundred for a still. I charged $2,400 hundred (5 views) for the 3 story apartment I did, and posted several weeks ago, but that probably wasn't enough for the time I invested in it.

Well that's crazy. A normal website costs 5000$, branding and logo included. Small changes a few 100$ max.

For lo-fi renderings, I'm doing a lot of them. I call them 3 hours jobs.
Even with complex & shiny images, I never did a job that took longer than 1 man-week of work.
I should mention, I work for architects only. There is no way one of my clients would pay more than 1500$ per image, so the budget naturally restricts the time I can spend on a project.

[EricCamper]

I also work for architects and we charge $95/hr for me to render. We do a lot of site planning, so a SKETCH that one of the architects would do by hand, I can color up pretty quickly in about 2-4 hours... Some of them just want paint by number coloring and some want textures, grass, road, etc... but even the most complicated usually doesnt take long to do.... It's the labeling, and project scope notes that take forever... arrows and leaders need to be improved in the Adobe products..

And for 3d modeling, it can really vary a lot. Did we draw the plans ourselves, are we DESIGNING something on the fly...I have done so many renderings of PUMP stations for wastewater treatment plants... LOL... They are BLOCK buildings with one window and one door...

But all that being said... We dont change our prices.... you cant knock out renderings for $200 just because someone else will... Let those people make 5 bucks an hour... Once you start, everyone will expect the cheapest price...

That last rendering I did for that library... that bill was over $13,000. But of course we modeled and DESIGNED the entire building to WORK on the site... took pics, did photo montages that I never posted...stitched pics together, etc... And they needed it in like 2 days, which was not possible... I had over 105 hours that week alone... But I am not complaining... I get overtime...

[JeffG2]

www.nor-son.com and that didn't include the branding. The CMS is clunky and I only have access to basic editing. We just paid $7,000 to add social links on the bottom, which should go live today. We were a low budget client for them, to.

You guys got ripped off.

[glorybound]

But they got the fee that they asked for, and everyone here is very happy with the results. The site probably paid for itself in the credibility it gives us. That is my point. How can some get top dollar and others under sell their value daily? Is it confidence in what you do? Is it sales? Should we all hire very attractive, well spoken women, to go around selling our services? I was watching a TV show, which is called "Sister Pickers", and these girls go around, batting their eyes, getting things given to them. Another show, "American Pickers", who has two average guys, doing the same thing, and they get no special treatment. The people who have the science of sales figured out are winning. It's rarely about the dollar amount, in most cases.

[tricky]

I was watching a TV show, which is called "Sister Pickers", and these girls go around, batting their eyes, getting things given to them.

No offence Bobby, but I don't think you'd get much of a response using this technique judging by your avatar

This debate has come up time and time again on this and other forums. We have certainly become 'more competetive' with pricing over the past 2 or 3 years, and there is increased pressure on us from our regular clients to keep costs down. We only go so far though. We know how long it takes to produce the images and animations we output. We know our work is good. We know that we are far from the cheapest. We also know that the guys charging $295 (or £295!) can't possibly offer the level of service that we offer.

There is no way I will ever be producing an image for £295! Its just insulting to my skills. I'd rather work in Tescos and not have the stress of working with global illumination at all!

[glorybound]

No offence Bobby, but I don't think you'd get much of a response using this technique judging by your avatar

No offense, jerk! Opposites attract... my wife is hot... I'll have her do the sales

[tricky]

Hehehe. Good one!

[lukx]

We also know that the guys charging $295 (or £295!) can't possibly offer the level of service that we offer.
There is no way I will ever be producing an image for £295! Its just insulting to my skills. I'd rather work in Tescos and not have the stress of working with global illumination at all!

Ouch, in this case was insulted so many times ... still I don't want to work in Tesco

[cgrant3d]

Basically this boils down to the perception of value that your brand provides. Do people perceive you as a leader in the field and do you have a portfolio to back it up? (not directed at you Bobby - the general "you" reading this post)...

Part is purely perception on your clients part and part is your portfolio. For example - did you show up to your meeting with very professional gear, dressed stylish & present on a cutting edge laptop? None of those attributes affect the quality of renderings you produce at all but it affects the perception of value you give the client.

Similarly - your portfolio will affect perception too. Do you have a free something.wordpress.com website or a professional domain name / website? Does your portfolio have high end projects or is it all relatively inexpensive small jobs? ... Everything affects perception and that affects whether they think you're worth what you charge.