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Economy Affecting Our Industry?


Eezo
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Hi there

 

I read the forums alot but dont often post (something I hope to change).

 

I work as a 3d Visualiser on the South Coast of England and have been doing so for a couple of years now.

 

The company I work for is struggling to find work lately (been getting less since christmas), has anyone else found that its been a hell of a lot harder to find work recently and if so do you think its related to the current economic slowdown and what are your thoughts on the future of the industry?

 

I ask because I was seriously thinking of starting up my own firm doing archi visuals but lately it seems a very bad idea?

 

Any opinions on the state of the industry/market at the moment would be very nice to here? I hope im just being paranoid but it don't feel that way!

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I ask because I was seriously thinking of starting up my own firm doing archi visuals but lately it seems a very bad idea?

 

I would really recommend against this in this climate. At least in the states I would imagine it will be at least 3 years until there is a recovery.

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Hmm this tahts what I was affraid you might say!

 

Im currently thinking if the market here is crap then ill go work in Dubi for a few years and then come back when things have picked up a bit, anyone work in Dubi, whats it like?

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Dunno, industry rocks here in Aussie. :)

 

The industry is pretty strong at the moment in Australia, however I'm still worried about the industry here down the track. It seems to me that the market is starting to get saturated with lots of little companies and they seem at risk at the moment with things being unstable.

 

If i was in your shoes i'd head to Dubai, there is a lot of really interesting work to be involved in, so it would be a good experience while its happening. Thats my plan for next year.

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The industry is pretty strong at the moment in Australia, however I'm still worried about the industry here down the track. It seems to me that the market is starting to get saturated with lots of little companies and they seem at risk at the moment with things being unstable.

 

If i was in your shoes i'd head to Dubai, there is a lot of really interesting work to be involved in, so it would be a good experience while its happening. Thats my plan for next year.

 

I had to suffer through the dot com crash in the 90's. All it does is weed out the backyard overnighters, and leaves the quality behind. Im lucky living in Brisbane - development is an entire industry onto itself here now. Our local council has opened up the city limits for highrise development, we're one of the best cities on the planet to live in... we'll be around a long time.

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One of our architects recently gave a speach on Tall buildings to an international audience. From his feed back of responces we could be very busy for the next 20 years with the amount of work in China and India, Dubia is starting to cool off a little

 

jhv

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I had to suffer through the dot com crash in the 90's. All it does is weed out the backyard overnighters, and leaves the quality behind. Im lucky living in Brisbane - development is an entire industry onto itself here now. Our local council has opened up the city limits for highrise development, we're one of the best cities on the planet to live in... we'll be around a long time.

 

I'll agree with you there. I just left Bris 6 months ago to work in Melboune (and strangely enough i'm doing more Brisbane jobs then I did when I was there hehe). I think there will be alot going on there for quite a while. Be interesting to work there again in the future. Its alot different then here in Melbourne.

 

Ok for all you guys in Australia, anyone working in Sydney? I have a friend who has said I can go live with her if I wanted to move over there, anyone know what its like in sydney?

 

There are definately some good companies in Sydney and if your interested in the city its well worth the look. Sydney wouldn't be my preferred place either, but thats just me, being from Bris and all. I have a number of friends working there and some from London aswell and they swear by it. Go to Syd for a holiday and check the place out, who knows you might love it.

 

From a work point of view, there is plenty around.

Edited by LukeC
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The problem in the UK is that there are so many viz firms at the moment, you just have to go to the back of BD to see the amount of firms that advertise there.

 

I expect a lot of them will disappear over the next couple of years. The firm I work at is finding they are getting a lot more CV's from freelancers trying to get full time work now.

 

Never going to happen though because as soon as the market picks up they will be off with all the textures and models.

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iv noticed a pretty big drop off of work sence Xmas too.

 

I (luckly) still have plenty of other work on, just not architectual.

 

One thing that does worry me a bit about Arch viz field in the UK is that there are so many companys now doing it, and in the current financial(doom and gloom) climate companys will really really be lowing there costs to get the jobs in, and as soon as the econamy picks up again those super low prices that everyones been quoting for the last few years with be the norm.

Edited by Mat@MDI-Digital
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You see for a guy like me it scares the crap out of me because other than archi/vis my skill are a little limited, dont think I could character model again im very out of practice and besides that not much else in 3d interests me to much these days.

 

Its a shame about the current unhealthy climet, I think people like me are in for a tough time!

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Hi all,

 

It's very interesting this should come up. We've had 5 CVs come in this week so far, all from graphic designers inside Architectural practices - the first to be let go when the going gets tough. This can actually be good for us, since Architects won't all be able to do this stuff in-house anymore, they'll have to farm it out to people like us.

 

As for the quantity of work, one of our biggest projects just got halved in size today, however, on the whole, we're pretty busy, we will almost certainly take on another person (on a job by job basis) next week to help with the work load.

 

That said, I hope no more of our big projects get scaled back,

Ian

 

PS. One thing quite major coming from all our developer clients is: Animations are out, Stills are in.

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seems to be pretty strong in the UK, at least from what I see and hear. Then again this is based on bigger scale projects rather than domestic scale stuff which tends to be the first to wane.

 

when i left melbourne things were excellent industry wise, you should move there, its a superior city to sydney. do not move to dubai its a disgusting backwards shithole imo.

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Having said that, I should add that 3 of Manchester's proposed 5 new sky scrapers have been scrapped, and so have both of the ones in Leeds. So I wouldn't expect many new big projects to get going, keep ahold of what you've got! :)

 

Ian

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We are still able to get enough work. The problem we have been noticing lately is that clients are taking a lot longer to pay retainers and final invoices. I guess the banks are holding back the money. My advice is to not start projects without retainers or deliver work without payments (unless you have a very good relationship with the client).

 

Also, our work is a lot more international lately. You can't rely on ANY specific market. Moving to another city might not be enough...

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hmm my language was probably a bit strong...but its like a black hole devoid of culture rapidly turning into giant overblown legolandesque circus built on the back of poorly paid / looked after construction staff from 3rd world countries.

 

Not to mention the cultural attitudes towards women.

 

However, that said this rant belongs elsewhere (probably not on this thread /board to be honest!)

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