Devin Johnston Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 My firm has thankfully been free of layoffs so far, but the talk around the water cooler isn't very positive. I feel like now more than ever it's important for my firm to know that the last thing they want to get rid of is their Viz department. I'm sure that many of you are going through the same thing, and if you aren't yet it's probably headed your way. So with that in mind I'd like to find out what others are doing to be as efficient, important and relevant as possible to their firm/clients. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieLeon Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 My opinion is that it really depends on the mindset of your company. This is something that you cannot change if they don't recognize the value of 3d and marketing. I hope you are fortunate and they use your team to the fullest extent possible because you can be a real asset to whomever is doing business development. My advice is to keep doing exactly what you are doing here. Communicate as much as possible with your boss and anyone else that is making decisions to keep your firm afloat. Your insight and ideas will be valued in a time of need. It's might experience that many people that are in tough situations keep quiet and try to float "under the radar". That's something you don't want to do. Keep in mind, clients are looking for value. How can you help your firm provide value to your clients? It's not just about cutting costs. Remaining competitive is extremely critical in tough times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 (edited) It has always been a secret dream of mine to be fired from a job. Partially to see how I would land on my feet, how could I challenge myself, and to give me a reason to try something different. Shhhh. Don't tell anyone. For you firm not to let you go, you need to show how what you do provides value and revenue, either directly or indirectly. This is not an easily measurable item in visualization. Do you measure it by direct work produced... if so, then you have to prove that is more valuable for the company to keep you on, rather than farming things out to China (or Canada if you believe the prices in another recent thread.) There are several cost factors when farming work out that are not reflected in the low fee for the renderings. Do you measure your value in how you work can help land projects during the interview process. If so, you need to look at how you worked directly with the entire team during the design process to land that multi-million building. You could easily play a major role in landing a few jobs, and that alone is reason to keep someone around,because that means everyone in the firm stays gainfully employed. The name of the rendering game here in the U.S. within architectural firms going forward is about integrated work flow. This means that what you are doing is a product of the design process, and not a separate process in itself. Working out all of the kinks between BIM, and polished renderings will create a work flow that can not be matched by outsourcing to China. ....though some firms are outsourcing there BIM and drawing, so that presents a whole new problem. Edited January 17, 2009 by Crazy Homeless Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieLeon Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 It has always been a secret dream of mine to be fired from a job. Partially to see how I would land on my feet, how could I challenge myself, and to give me a reason to try something different. Lol...you can always fire yourself I have done that to myself a few times. It feels great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Eddie's right Travis....aren't you your own boss now???? I bet there's plenty of folks there in SF to show you how to make it on the streets Eddie is on the same track I was thinking only in different words. My initiative lately has been to give heavy support to the marketing department. Play a proactive role in creating useful assets for marketing both to get jobs and to sell the company. With an internal group like mine, it becomes more about being apart of a marketing team that answer RFQs and develops material specific to a client for interviewing purposes. The month of december got really slow, not only with the economy but also with a lot of the firm being on vacation. Makes it hard for an internal vis group to keep busy. Half of my team's time last month was billed as either marketing or overhead for development. So we spent more time than usual contributing to marketing which goes a long way to showing the usefulness of visualization and keeps your department from getting downsized. Luckily with the new year a handful of projects kicked back in and filled the schedule. But you better believe that I'm still buddying up to the marketing director to keep any prospective work coming to help supplement that schedule and keep busy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Hunt Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I'd say the biggest asset an inhouse viz team is more the design development and DA approval stages of the project. The hardest thing to get across is separating the fee's for DA and that for producing marketing images. Its taken a long time to get that message across to the powers. Sadly when we are commissioned to do marketing images the architects see this as an opportunity to further tweek the designs, thus eat into the budget. So when the budgets are analized later we tend to run at a loss. Making it harder to convince the powers to chase more marketing work. This is especially so with animations. The other difficulty, is resourcing. We have the luxury and curse of having a really efficient and skilled team of vizzers. Everyone wants/needs 3d work for their projects. We have a constant battle of scheduling who does what, especially when there are a certain few who feel they can dump work on us at the last minute, regardless of our workload. So having strong management skills are problably going to be more worth to you keeping your job over one who does not. jhv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias_marks Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 (edited) Lol...you can always fire yourself haha! I just did that a couple weeks ago, and now here I am in sf, along side crazyhomelessguy, finding out what I'm capable of and where I'll land. Give it a shot crazyhomelessguy I'd add that a great idea is to ask around, if you haven't already, to the different partners, and see what jobs they're going after. Think of some ways that you you're 3d efforts can help shine your firms proposal above others, spec out how much time you think it will take, then present it as a project that you're willing to take on. At the very least, your 'higher-ups' will recognize that you're looking for solutions, and that's an extremely valuable commodity to hang on to as an employer.... oh, and another good one.... Look back about 5 years and bring up some examples of how your firm used to present their work, then show some examples of how work is being presented today. Also compare and contrast how 3d has been integrated into the firm workflow over the past years. It's always good to remind everyone of how much things have changed over the past years because of the kind of work you do. Then outline how you see it evolving in the next 5 years or so....becoming more integrated into the design process etc. Then maybe put a presentation together and offer it as an 'educational seminar' to the firm or during a partners meeting or lunch seminar, or something....if your firm does that kinda thing. Edited January 17, 2009 by alias_marks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Okay i also wanted to fire myself, but my contract with me doesn't allow this. But seriously, in the last years in my area archviz was more integrated into the planning process than before, and since i am a studied architect i often have clients asking me for a suggestion (odd, i know). Thats simply because if you build the 3D model you obviously have a lot of knowledge about which details work and which not, and many architects are still not capable of thinking in 3d space. So i guess for an inhouse archviz guy the best thing to survive is to work more with other people, be it either in marketing or development. That makes you more "visible" and you look less like a guy hanging around waiting for the lay-offs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Lol...you can always fire yourself I have done that to myself a few times. It feels great! Pfewwww, I have done that too and I was still feeling ashamed to have done it, until I read your post. It is life, it changes constantly....What works for you and your family today might not work tomorrow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieLeon Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 ....What works for you and your family today might not work tomorrow... I agree 100%. We should always be challenging ourselves to learn and grow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pipjor Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 i work in a marketing dept as the only "3d guy" at a large eng firm.. for the last 3yrs i've worked from home, now I'm on back in the office(thought it was a good idea, out of site, out of mind type of thinking during our downsizing) 99% of my work used to be 3ds, AE, PS but now i'm "helping out" with proposals, Adobe InDesign etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 There are some very good ideas in this thread, it sounds like I'm already doing most of this with the exception of getting in good with the marketing department. My firm has been aware of the importance of 3d for years, it was the main reason they first hired me. Having been laid off before I can tell you that it's not as much fun as you'd think especially if you've got a family to support. In a normal slowing of the economy it wouldn’t be so hard to land on your feet, but what we're experiencing now seems to be much bigger than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic H Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 i am increasing my black coffee and pint intake to unheard of / perhaps dangerous levels... ...but for us effective storyboarding and detailed animatics showing all camera moves and animated elements are the way we are tightening up efficiency, and getting sign off on these early on allows us to concentrate on very small scenes and areas of detail - rather than developing a fully detailed model. Its a pleasure to work on small scenes and gives you time to make custom textures and model extra details you may not have time for if you are constantly updating full models. Also trying to educate clients (particulary architects) that their models are alomost always need work and cannot just be 'dropped in'. 99% of models from inhouse/sketchup/BIM/ are terrible (for visualization) as they are often design models used to develop ideas with rather than good clean working models. Architects, when queried on project details tend to like to 'issue' a huge nonsense set of DWGs or worse still a new 3d model, when in fact a sketch over a render is the quickest and most effecitive way to give feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 i am increasing my black coffee and pint intake to unheard of / perhaps dangerous levels... I think you can buy Ritalin on the black market. Just don't get caught with it. A sketch may work for you, but I think a sketch supplemented with appropriate drawing/sections are best for most. A sketch by itself is open to interpretation, and the chances that the person making it is able to correctly interpret it often depends on their formal education, instincts, or what they were trained in. It may take more time to look at the drawings, but then you can build it once, and be done with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic H Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 yes more information is always good, but a sketch markup over a quick render is instant and tends to illicit more details than a flat elevation would, often its not until that view is drawn over in perspective that particular details become resolved, ones that might otherwise be represented as 2d lines until a later architectural stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 This is a great thread and it's great to see all the in-house peeps come together like this... brings a tear to my eye really. First off, I find it incredible that you haven't had any layoffs Devin. We just let 8 people go (fortunately nobody from visualization) and today they announced that a 5% cut in everyone's salary will take effect immediately... sigh. The key is integration and collaboration, as pretty much all the posts have summed up. With marketing for sure, but also anywhere else. Planning is a big deal for us so figuring out ways to assist them is crucial. Design goes hand in hand anyway, but working out best practices for integration with SU and Revit or even just the best methods for bringing designs to life very early in the conceptual process really makes them happy. We have a landscape and interiors department so getting in good them takes a little different approach. Basically, I see the key being making ourselves as indespensible as possible to as many different people as possible the key. To the point that they couldn't imagine how work would get done without us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 ...... To the point that they couldn't imagine how work would get done without us. Bringing them coffee and donuts every now and then ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 we've taken to printing our own money now. just dont tell anyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Warner Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Strat- How easily can you adapt your press to US dollars? We're in need of some too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 We've had no layoffs either. But the hiring frenzy seems to have slowed. Knock on wood that everything remains solid here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 For those of you that haven't had any layoffs (I'm speaking to those who work in Architectural firms) what sort of projects do you do? We specialise in health care, which my understanding is that it is one of the most, if not thee most stable market these days, and yet we are suffering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 My firm has 13 different architectural departments which are all serviced by the design department of which I am apart. My function is basically to handle all the rendering needs of the 13 departments and design. Most of my work comes from design but I'd say 20% will come form some of the teams, that's mainly because they just handle the CD's and don't need much viz support. In theory during slow times some of the teams will slow down while others will pick up and people can be shared between teams if need be. So far it seems to be working, and it doesn’t hurt to live in a city that has been virtually unaffected by the sub prime mess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 So which departments are up and why has your city not been affected by the lending mess? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 (edited) ....health care, which my understanding is that it is one of the most, if not thee most stable market these days, and yet we are suffering. We're also in the healthcare market which has been great up until the last few months of 2008 when the market caught up to our specialty as well. I account two large factors for this..... The first one was the November elections, with people keeping tighter with their personal budgets they were less likely to pass the bond issues on ballots that a lot of public institutions like hospitals rely on for funding. I saw a number of projects outside our project load that went on hold until project funding which once was in place could be re-established. The second issue is that healthcare was a stable market which looked really good to firms who carry other specialties as their own fields were drying up. So we had a market in which people were crossing over into different markets where the jobs were flooding the market a bit and left us with even more people fighting for fewer jobs. Luckily for us there are still a lot of projects starting up, you just have to fight extra hard to win them. Edited January 20, 2009 by BrianKitts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieLeon Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 For those of you that haven't had any layoffs (I'm speaking to those who work in Architectural firms) what sort of projects do you do? We specialise in health care, which my understanding is that it is one of the most, if not thee most stable market these days, and yet we are suffering. Everything is being affected by the economy, but there is still all kinds of work out there. The type of work that we are getting from Arch firms is Hospitality/Resort (International), Mixed-Use/Retail, and Healthcare. Also, animation work has dropped significantly, but there has been an increased demand for renderings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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