Using Architectural Visualisation to Boost Sales
Trying to describe an object using words is a notoriously slippery process. Which is why certain industries rely on visual representation to market their products. Estate Agents and architects have a particular problem; they regularly sell products that don’t yet exist. For decades, the ‘Artist Impression’ provided critical marketing images. Now, architectural visualisation offers a detailed photorealistic image in its place.
What is Architectural Visualisation?
Also known as architectural CGI or 3D rendering, architectural visualisation uses graphic rendering processes to create realistic 3D images from 2D plans. These techniques are able to provide customers with ‘immersive’ CGI walk throughs of properties, as well as offering images that place properties in their ‘natural’ landscape. Geographic detail, people and weather features all help to give the impression of reality.
Recent Examples
Fordham Cambridgshire, front view of 1 property & 1 aerial view of whole site:
Fordham Cambridgshire for another client, 2 semi detached houses:
Fordham Cambridgshire for another client, 2 semi detached houses:
Selling Ideas
When you’re selling innovation and transformation, you need to make the invisible, visible. Most people find it difficult turning plans or maps into a fully formed reality in their heads, which is why 3D rendering is so helpful as a sales tool. Imagefix has found that it’s not only Estate Agents that can utilise the pre-selling benefits of architectural visualisation. If you’ve got a new device in development, or you’re selling a specialist process, or even if you want to show a client how their home could be transformed – often visual evidence is what drives engagement.
Architectural Visualisation as a Sales Tool
Here are just 4 of the ways in which architectural visualisation can help to increase sales:
- Visualising Interiors. This has amazing potential for interior designers, estate agent, decorators, wedding planners and furniture companies. The technology allows you to try out different ideas, and make decisions in real time. This adds another dimension to the sales process. We recently created this ‘architectural fly through’ for a client.
- Animating Processes. Trying to sell ‘a process’ has to be one of the hardest sales tasks. Placing that process into the context of the industry, or workplace is a great way to help make sense of it for the customer. We recently created a CGI animation for a client who needed to show how a fuel management system works.
- CGI Exteriors. These are 3D photorealistic images created from detailed architectural plans. The rendering stage allows us to add details like brickwork, the effect of light on windows, and the direction at which the sun hits the building. We’re also able to add in cars, geographic details, people and planting. We recently created this CGI rendering from plans provided.
- Transformation Images. When you’re selling an idea, it’s great to have ‘before and after’ images to add into the mix – except when the ‘after’ doesn’t yet exist. We are able to show transformation in action by creating the imagery you need to make your case. We created a 3D rendering of these completed Flitwick apartments in Bedfordshire, whilst the build was in its early stages. This 3D rendering technique can be used for geographical locations, car repairs, housing planning, infrastructure planning.
How to Achieve the Best Results With Architectural Visualisation
We have created many architectural visualisations with only a floor plan and elevation to work from. Our most successful imagery though, the ones that capture the imagination of buyers, are those that offer a richly detailed texture for perusal. The human eye processes data fantastically fast; the more detailed the image, the more satisfying the experience.
For a rich and visually satisfying architectural visualisation, we would recommend providing:
- Authentic Colour. Colour lifts and distinguishes the objects we look at. 3D renderings which offer the authentic brickwork colour, and RAL colours for cladding, guttering, windows or doors give viewers a specific reality to work with, rather than a general impression.
- Google Map Co-ordinates. This information allows us to bring to life the environment surrounding your featured property. We can include features such as a park, a railway, clumps of trees or open fields.
- Photographic Detail. Images of the building in progress – where possible – give us a sense of the landscape surrounding the property, the proximity of other buildings, and the size of the driveway, for example.
- Property Orientation. Buyers are concerned whether their house is west, or south facing because it affects the quality of light they’ll experience. If we know the orientation, we can reproduce the light at a specific time of day.
Imagefix Can Help With Your Marketing
Once you have beautiful imagery in place of plans and diagrams, Imagefix can help you maximise their marketing impact. Need stunning visuals for a sales presentation? Or a high quality brochure to hand to customers on an open day? From flyers to websites to sales boards and signage, we can ensure that the property, design or process you want to sell reaches the customers you want to sell to.
Working With Imagefix
We work with a number of property developers and estate agents who find architectural visualisation invaluable to their sales process. Increasingly, though, 3D rendering is also being used by entrepreneurs, engineers and planners. Conversation is key to all the work we do at Imagefix, but it’s particularly important for this kind of work. We guarantee a personalised service, from start to finish, and a high quality CGI product to boost your sales.
Architectural Visualisation FAQs
Architectural visualisation, like 3D rendering, generates a 2D photorealistic image from 3 dimensional data. It provides property developers, or estate agents, for example, the means to show buyers what a property will look like once it is built. Our building renderings include detail such as the effect of sunlight or rain on brickwork, and we can also show properties in different seasons or at different times of the day.
A 3D render is a detailed, photorealistic image, that shows what a new build, an interior design project, or a product in R&D will look like when it’s completed. Our 3D rendering services are used by architects, estate agents, or businesses developing a new product, to help buyers experience a product, before it is built, assembled, or decorated.
This specialist application of 3D rendering provides exquisitely detailed images of interior design. It shows the dimensions of the room from a variety of angles and demonstrates the quality of natural light. Beyond that, interior 3D rendering dwells on textures, picks out colour combinations, and explores lighting combinations provide a sensuous experience for viewers.
New dwellings exist in geographical space, and an exterior visualisation, or exterior rendering will create a photorealistic experience of a property in its surroundings. This may include nearby buildings, topographical features, or access. We can include natural features such as trees, the angle of sunlight on bricks, or plants in the garden. We can even add personalised details, such as the viewer’s car on the driveway.
An architectural flythrough or walkthrough is a detailed 3D animation that offers an experiential viewing of a property. A walkthrough animation will focus on the rooms inside of the property, including aspects of interior design in showcased rooms. A flythrough animation includes both the interior and the exterior, giving viewers a birds eye view of the area in which their property is located.
The Imagefix team will be creating your rendering directly from the 3D data you provide. The more you can give us, therefore, the more detailed we can be.
- Architectural plans
- Floor plans
- Elevation drawings
If these are not available, we can normally work from photographs, or from images that give us a clear indication of the kind of effect you are looking for.
It really depends on how complex the task is. A simple renderings can be completed in just a few days (including revisions). If there is a deadline that you cannot miss, we will do our best to achieve it for you.
Imagefix will produce a detailed quote for your 3D render based on the size and complexity of the job you need completed.
Would you like to talk to us about using architectural visualisation to boost your sales? Call today to talk to a member of the Imagefix team on 01525 715608
