himanshuchoudhary Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I have been having this in my mind for quite a while now, and i finally decided to give a shout out to other people in the industry. From the last 1.5 years, i have been working in a architectural visualisation company in czech republic called visualarch. From a few months, i was thinking of sending my portfolios around other parts of europe or UK, and apply to the job posts around. What i am not sure of, is how much would be the average pay for a mid/senior level visualartist in one of the companies you usually find around the jobs board. Also, if someone could point out the standard cost of living in say, london or manchester or munich etc, it would be very helpful. Do you think it is a better idea to approach comapnies around europe or go back to india and establish a setup there ( i came to prague to do my masters, and stayed with the job here). Hope i can get a few doubts cleared! Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himanshuchoudhary Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 Any approximate answer or a direction to certain websites/forums will also be extremely helpful... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 You're in the right forum, its just that the question is too broad. Its pretty easy to find out the cost of living in countries, but to answerr the salary question or decide for you whether to go to India is a little open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himanshuchoudhary Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 Fair enough Tom, i quite agree with you actually, about the staying or going back to india part being too open and completely depending upon me. But i am just concerned as to be asking for too less or too much more than the average rate/pay in these countries. I have only worked as a freelancer until now, and dont have any idea about the rates. Hence the question. There are tonnes of websites giving various averages of random jobs.. but surprisingly, the visualisation industry does not seem to show up on any of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himanshuchoudhary Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 I have only worked as a freelancer until now, and dont have any idea about the rates. by the rates, i mean working in a company as an employee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heni30 Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 I think the rates would be better in Europe, of course. There are ways to beat the cost of living - roommates, suburbs, edgy neighborhoods, ramen noodles. The big advantage would be being around exceptional talent and the excitement and resources of a big city. With your English London would be the logical choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 I think the rates would be better in Europe, of course. There are ways to beat the cost of living - roommates, suburbs, edgy neighborhoods, ramen noodles. The big advantage would be being around exceptional talent and the excitement and resources of a big city. With your English London would be the logical choice. London would be a horrible choice, I'd only live in London, NY, Paris or Tokyo if I had a stack in the bank. Go for a provincial town. You'll have disposable income and wouldn't have to live in a little shoe-box. People would be easier to meet too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heni30 Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 (edited) It's all relative and where you're at in your life. I lived in NYC for 2 years in Manhattan's Lower East Side - worked for one of the top illustrators at the time. Had 3 female roommates - 1 went to Cooper Union, 1 was German; worked at the United Nations - the other was a flight attendant for American Airlines. Rode my bicycle everywhere. Tons of museums, concerts, parks, architecture, interesting people. Just walking down the street was an exciting experience. Met my wife there. Got mugged at gunpoint twice - but hey, that's part of the package. For ME, personally, it was a amazing experience, at that time. Edited March 4, 2014 by heni30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 Yeah, horses for courses I guess. I used to like living in gnarly neighborhoods cycling everywhere and getting stoned for work, but the rents in London and NY are absurd now. I dont think the OP is at advanced stage of thier career (hunch) so maybe mattress surfing for a while could be an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 I lived in NYC for 2 years in Manhattan's Lower East Side - worked for one of the top illustrators at the time... Oh, yeah? Who was that? Met my wife there. Got mugged at gunpoint twice... Which one was she? Kidding! Well now the LES is all trendy, I guess they finally kicked out all the squatters and junkies (at least the ones who were broke). I doubt either you or I could afford to live there now. Not that I would want to, my memory still functions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 And London is LA with prettier buildings. Not for me, unless I could live/work in the center where it's actually vibrant and interesting. So the OP is from India but is free to live/work anywhere in Europe? I don't think I could pull that off, as an American. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heni30 Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 (edited) Oh, yeah? Who was that? Oh Yeah!? (NY attitude) Well it happened to be Suns Hung - Chinese airbrush guy. We were doing work for Phillip Johnson, Emilio Ambasz, KPF. I also did work for Andy Hickes; interviewed with Schaller to do pencil underlays for the WC (no thanks - unless you're a masochist). Which one was she? Gal is Heni, she was a Park Ranger in Prospect Park at the time. Man, that uniform, Smokey the Bear hat, edgy, cop-like attitude - How could i resist? Still use the cuffs from time to time (just kidding)....(maybe) The only reason I found a place was because I traded places with an old girlfriend when I was living in Miami. She was in NYC - 4 girls in a 2 bedroom apartment down at the bottom near Chinatown. She broke off with this guy and he was stalking her and she was afraid she was going to be killed (really) so she came down and took over my place and I went up there. My living space was the curtained off living room. Edited March 5, 2014 by heni30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic H Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 plenty of 3D work in Australia and a real lack of good people but its VERY EXPENSIVE it makes london feel affordable tbh you should be able to gauge salaries by looking on job websites Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic H Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 edit sorry you mentioned europe not oz! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himanshuchoudhary Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 I dont think the OP is at advanced stage of thier career (hunch) Quite right... i have been working in the industry for less than 3 years, but hopefully i wont need to surf around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himanshuchoudhary Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 So the OP is from India but is free to live/work anywhere in Europe? I don't think I could pull that off, as an American. Well, yes i am from India, but i have been living in Prague, CZ for the last 4 years, and might be intrested in shifting base a bit. Hence the question... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himanshuchoudhary Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 By the way, thanks for all the helpful ( and extremely interesting ) answers! I am sure if this post gets going, there would be more people who are based in Europe replying(i see only the americans giving any opinions yet ). Have you guys ever worked in UK/Europe? And if yes, how has your experience been? Also, is it better to be employed in a archviz studio in the beginning of your career (as mine) or is it better to start off freelancing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mowstn Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 (edited) hi himanshu, i would say if you already had experience as a freelancer - go for it. but since you want to go into another city i think it would be easier to work with a company there for a while until you know the local architects and so on. i'm starting of my business in stuttgart, germany right now and there is such a big density of architects here, that it's not that hard to find some work. depends on your location i guess. germany in general is pretty dense architects-wise. money wise. i worked as an intern in a rather big interior-arch firm where they had one guy mainly responsible for archviz. he was one of the 10 best payed guys in that entire firm and they had around 40 people in total. cheers, mo Edited March 5, 2014 by mowstn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
himanshuchoudhary Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 Thanks Mo, Its a bit tricky to put my job under freelance or employed. I work only for one company, but based on jobs. I have heard that germany has a really good scope for this work. I am thinking of giving it a shot too. Prost! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Oh Yeah!? (NY attitude) Well it happened to be Suns Hung - Chinese airbrush guy... I didn't mean attitude... I know Suns, he's a great guy. But isn't he from Tiawan, or Singapore? I forget. His brother was running an early CG shop in Asia while most everyone else was still painting. I think Suns went into straight architecture, not sure if he's doing rendering in any form at the moment. I'm still friends with Andy and, via Facebook, Tom. For a different renderer I used to have the job of drawing all those layouts and transferring (pinning) them to illustration boards. Loads of fun. That's why I figured out how to use a pen plotter with gray ink to draw them directly and still look like pencil. And Prospect Park is the best. I lived along one 'coast' for 16 years. We have managed to fully hijack this thread. Oh, well, stuff happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Buy this survey. It was designed to answer the questions that you have. http://www.cgarchitect.com/2013/01/20132013-visualization-salary-survey-now-available Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Its a bit tricky to put my job under freelance or employed. I work only for one company, but based on jobs... Be careful, because that is the worst of both worlds. The company has made no commitment to you as far as continuing employment, but you do not have alternative clients to fill in gaps if the first one doesn't have work for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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