Do you have any clients from other countries?

[Dimitris Stasis]

***Sorry if this is a double post but I posted the same thread one day ago and did not see it published in the forum***

 

Hello,

 

After 12 years of working as an architect and visualizer, both in-house in various practices and by taking up jobs on my own, I've decided to get serious about freelancing in architectural visualization. I am currently building a website portfolio containing 30-40 selected projects and intend to pursue jobs abroad.

 

Does any of you get jobs from other countries? If yes, would you like to share the way you found those clients? Did you go for it by email marketing, phone calls, posted brochures or some other strategy? Did the clients find you instead from your website, by getting recommendations about you from their colleagues or by seeing your work published?

 

Another important aspect is communication. Supposing that language is not an issue, do you feel that clients are comfortable enough to outsource the visualization of their work to someone with whom they will only communicate by emails, phone or skype and will not meet in person? It has happened to me several times to work on a project without making an office meeting with the client, but only with people with whom I have met personally in the past and worked again with.

 

Thanks for sharing,

D.S.

[russkev]

I get clients from overseas but my situation is a little different. I recently left my full time job in Australia and moved to London. Since then, people that I know from Australia have been contacting me for work so for me it's been people I've already had a relationship with.

 

Time zones are a bit of an issue, sometimes when working on an Australian job, my sleeping patterns will slowly change to align simply because that's when people are available to talk.

 

The company that I used to work for did outsource some of their work to people overseas or interstate that they never actually met. A few were because of recommendations from people in the company but we hired one guy because we'd been using a few of his models on Turbosquid and were impressed with their quality.

[sukardiismail]

I have worked with overseas clients before but it is very hard.

 

For me the hardest part is to build a rapport with somebody who lives in another culture without face to face meet up. When there is urgent job to be completed, we can push things through but it is pretty hard to sustain the interest afterwards.

[amer abidi]

People who outsource to another geographical location strike me as looking for one of two: The best, or the Cheapest.

So if you're focusing your business model on getting jobs from abroad, then my advice to you is to strive to be one or the other. =)

[Dimitris Stasis]

Good point, amer! But even if you're really good or really cheap, you have to make yourself known in the (international) market, as being really good or really cheap. What is the most effective way to do this?

[Dimitris Tolios]

In my humble opinion, most of the people what are after "really good" have their own studios or permanent CG "partners" they keep using over and over.

 

The #1 reason for "out-sourcing" CG work is by far the cheaper rates, an not quality.

More and more work is outsourced by architectural offices (at least here in California) to China, for prices per finished image that local CG freelancers would barely get off their bed for, and studios would simply get frustrated about. Yes, there are good relationships based on efficiency and quality, but more and more work gets shipped out. Even with countless or revisions and language barriers, things get worked out one way or another much cheaper, and apparently that's all it counts.

 

The client base that has mediocre requirements gets satisfied, the CG studios get out of work, and the industry is bleeding cash flow overseas, that of course will never return to the originating economy.

 

If it was in my hands, I would tax the @@ out of people out-sourcing anything for no legitimate reason other than greed.

From electronics, to CG work etc. It is suicidal in the long run, as the economy is debased and - for example - the CG artist in china that you gave your project to visualize as a US based Architect, will most likely never build a substantial presence as a firm in the US, or even buy a house as an individual. So kiss each and every money sent to him goodbye, along with the "middle class" fairy-tail in your own country.

 

I know it is pretty hard with the greek economy right now, but undercutting others is like digging a well with you in it and no rope to get out of, as you actively undermining your country's economy.

Edited March 7, 2013 by dtolios

[Fooch]

We do a lot of overseas international work. However, its a lot of years , time and investment which goes into it. Its not a hard process but there has to be a lot of systems in place and planning.

 

There has been times where i've jumped on the next flight to another spot because there's a big project going on there and we are pulled into it.

I personally believe in presenting the storyboards/concept face to face for films so it does get very taxing.