Freelance reality

[Paul Davison]

Hello, I have been working within small teams for various Architectural Practices for many years now based in London. It has it pros and cons but above anything else can be very restricting and often feels like I'm used as design tool rather than a creative. I understand this is the nature of the field but have often wondered/day dreamed about the life of a Visualiser as a freelancer. Do you have the freedom a little more to express yourself creatively, ideas received with more credibility? What about pay and rates, can you earn a reasonsible living, if so where would one get the work from, purely contacts along the way?

 

I would be really interested to know the general consensus on this Freelance VS perm-inhouse design tool subject.

 

Thanks for reading and any response

 

Paul

[sygboe]

If you're Visualizing someone elses designs, i'd say the margin for your creative input would be not far from '0' other than the way you present the images or movies. I've found that you're still used as a design tool. when you realise their plans and elevations dont match up and you have to work out how their roof works for them (architects)

[Paul Davison]

Ha, ah yes that old problem, always a joy working out what drawing is the more accurate, elevation or plan

[JonRashid]

I do a lot of work for the smaller practices. They allow me quite a lot of leeway on materials, landscaping etc. They tend to trust my opinion on quite a lot but it has taken many years to achieve this. However as most of my images are for planning applications perhaps the final materials don't always have an influence on the decision. I agree with the previous post though, whereby most of your creativity comes in making the plans work as the details are not realised until building regs stage but in order to build the model we have to make things work. At this point you get to influence design in a lot of cases by the options you present. I always feel quite pleased when a modification or suggestion I make ends up in the final design.