{PODCAST RERUN} Truth is Golden - 202 | We're All Going To Die w/ Stefan Hunt

A brief 2022 take on this podcast: When I started podcasting 5 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish, but on the technical side, I sucked and I was also terrified to record myself for the public to hear. “What are they going to think of me?” was a constantly recurring mantra in my head and I would routinely get the jitters in the hour leading up to an interview.

Four years on, I feel much more positively about the whole endeavour, but if I ask one thing of you is this: don’t judge the execution too harshly and instead focus on the content of the conversations. I think after all these years they still hold tremendous value.

In episode 2 of our second season, Stefan Hunt, recounted his -short- life story, from a typical western childhood in New South Wales, Australia, to his early foray into film making, crossing the US at 18 with no money, a bieber haircut and a drive to surf all 48 states, including the 20+ landlocked ones. His first film, self-described as “cringeworthy”, got him some attention and eventually led him to become the multi-talented professional filmmaker, artist and storyteller he is today; all the while continuing on his literally off the beaten path journey. Listen in to hear more about how one can be a highly creative, decent and compassionate human being at the same time.

About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice make a go of a career at it. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. In short, we want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative vision and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.

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©2017 rvltr - Architect: WeissAU

That's the proportion of homes, built in North America, for which no architect was involved at all. Some architects, Like Kevin Weiss, have the talent to conceive of homes that address that fact while providing their clients with solutions to their problems.

House 93 is the result of that. Even thought it's been around for a few years, I'm still amazed to this day about how clever the final result is. That's a textbook case of turning a major challenge into an opportunity.

Read more about the house on WeissAU's page.

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I hope you take as much pleasure reading my writings as I do writing them because they are created for your enjoyment! 

Click “>>subscribe” at the top left of this page, to get our daily (or weekly) updates straight into your inbox. You can also write me a little love note here. I truly enjoy having conversations with you about what I write.

How old-school photography techniques are changing the digital game.

Reading time ~7 minutes

In the film days of photography, the possibilities of editing images were bound by the limitations of printing images on paper from a film negative, effectively limiting prints to narrow parameters of correctness. Photographic printing was a skill mastered by a few artisans, whose function was to bring the photographer’s vision to life through a lifetime of accumulated darkroom skills.

While photographers were more deliberate on set and did multiple tests of their envisioned shots, primarily through the use of polaroids to test their views, they had little more than an intuitive idea of what the resulting finished image would look like, as there was no way to instantly review images, the way we are able to now with digital photography. They relied on a combination of skills, accumulated knowledge and a good dose of luck. As film was an expensive commodity, nothing like the nearly free and virtually unlimited storage ability of digital media, the more one took shots, the more expensive a shoot would become, forcing photographers to find the right balance between shooting enough frames to ensure a good ratio of useable images and not going overboard, thus rendering the shoot prohibitively expensive.

While they were limited by the techniques of the day and their associated costs, a good photographer then would have to possess the ability to envision and plan a good shot even without the use of polaroids or cameras. That vision, a combination of the intuition-based “ability to see” and experience acquired through dedicated practice, is still what makes a good architectural photographer today, as the tools of the trade have little influence over one’s skillset. 

With the advent of tools to both shoot and edit images digitally, a whole new world of possibilities has opened to image producers. For people with large film archives, digital tools enabled the re-interpretations of old photographs through the lens of modern technology. 

The late Balthazar Korab, famed 20th century architectural photographer and lifelong collaborator of Eero Saarinen, had the opportunity in his later years to re-appraise portions of his archive, but this time acting as a sort of curator of his work and bring new life to old photographs, only revisiting the images that stood the test of time and emerged as exceptional. He did so with the help of his supremely talented son, Christian Korab. 

During their collaboration, while preparing a definitive edition of his father’s images for a monograph on Cranbrook Academy (one of Korab’s favourite subjects which he repeatedly photographed over many decades) in a new digital medium, Christian was able to execute his father’s vision in a way which was never quite reachable before the digital editing tools we have today came into being. These digitized re-mastered images were described by Korab father as:

 “The precise and nearly-flawless execution that I could never quite realize in darkroom printing.” 

Indeed, his son has parlayed a lifelong working relationship with his father into a set of skills that very few, if anyone else has. It is the ideal blend of technical and aesthetic vision for the finished project. He developed a way to digitize film and master it into digital files that not only allow for the most faithful rendering possible to date but also allow for nearly flawless, unambiguous reproduction and archival conservation.

What is image mastering?

Mastering is a term that’s been widely used in the sound and film industries to describe a process aimed at codifying complex and collaborative artistic efforts that involve a variety of talents. When it comes to photography, it means bringing a similar level of predictability and reproducibility, with a great degree of accuracy to finished images.

In sound engineering, mastering was born from the need to reproduce music with the highest degree of fidelity across many systems of unequal quality, from cheap speakers to hi-fi systems worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the sound mastering process, artists codify their vision of how their music should be rendered to ensure that it renders in the best possible way on any system.

In film, mastering allows filmmakers to coordinate sound and colour to create a coherent finished product, accounting for the varying conditions in which the movie was shot and recorded. It essentially takes disparate pieces of raw material and through the editing process ensures that they are coherent and aesthetically pleasing in the finished product. Once the colour grading process is done, the viewer should not be able to see any differences across the scenes of a movie, even though they may have been shot at different times with varying pieces of equipment (this Instagram account is a great way to learn more about the idea).

Ultimately, the goal of these mastering techniques is to ensure that the artistic intent gets conveyed as accurately as possible. Learning from these other industries, Korab developed this methodology while trying to solve the problem of ensuring the perennial survival of his father’s film-based archive. It turns out that the process is also supremely applicable to digitally-native photography editing and archival, as it enables photographers to produce more consistent images across their entire catalogue and oftentimes, turn decent images into hero shots.

Additionally, mastering allows artists to include in the master files information relevant to using the images in the myriad of possible formats, such as fine art printmaking, publication, electronic display, archiving and art conservation. It is, therefore, a unique kind of artifact that possesses both raw information and the final rendition of an artwork. In other words, a digital photographic master is to photography what an audio master is to the recording industry:  an unambiguous, infinitely reproducible original artifact that is used to produce all subsequent versions of an image.

If properly archived and backed-up accordingly, its stability over time is guaranteed, as digital files do not decay and can be infinitely reproduced, the redundancy making information highly resilient. Another advantage is that the artist’s vision if properly reproduced, cannot be unintentionally modified as the master contains all the information about accurate reproduction in as many types of media as desired. 

A well-produced master is non-destructive, meaning that the work can always be revisited at a later date by the artist and modified to taste. These multiple interpretations are included in the master, thus forming a one-stop-shop history of the multiple versions of the same work

“The negative is the score and the print is the symphony”

Ansel Adams.

If we are to believe Adams' words, a digital master thus includes both the score and the symphony, not only that, but it can also include many symphonic performances, all infinitely reproducible.

Why you should care about it.

Formatting the images that represent your work in a highly-codified, high-fidelity file, enables the representation of your body of work in the most refined of ways. Not only the rendering of your images will be better, but the files themselves can embody a multitude of variations ensuring that your work is always showing up at its best no matter which media it is showcased on.

I have yet to find someone who doesn’t want this level of precision and quality in the public display of their work. Ultimately, your work will not sell itself, but beautiful imagery, well designed and perfectly reproduced will certainly help you convey what your work is about and enable you to find the clients that want what you have to offer.

The work you’re most proud of deserves the best of renditions, don’t you think?

This piece was co-written and edited with/by Christian Korab. If you’d like to know more about how image mastering can work for you, contact us and we’ll walk you through the process.

Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.

If you have questions about this article or rvltr or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaud@rvltr.studio.

What is creativity and why it is critically important for your business?

Reading time ~11 minutes

What is creativity?

All it takes for anyone to experience true, unapologetically unbridled creativity is to observe kids, say under the age of 8, in a state of deeply-focused play. The world around them ceases to exist as they build incredibly inventive and intricate narratives in their heads, all the while telling their ideas in great detail to whomever is willing to listen. They have no fear, no shame, even though these ideas, can sometimes be very, very silly. Socializing for the first 18 years of our lives takes care of making us feel ashamed for having crazy ideas, develop self-censorship and worst of all, make us believe that being unendingly creative is at best a waste of good ol’ productive time.

On top of that, 12 years of mandatory, conventional schooling, beats creativity out of many of us. In other words, we’re taught to become uncreative in favour of other so-called more desirable attributes that help us play well with others. Those that are rebellious enough to not let that creativity be sucked out of them, find themselves labeled “creative” later in life, in this instance the epithet carrying a negative connotation, as if creativity was an undesirable quality. 

My opinion is that the people who forgot how to be creative, label those who remained so as idle daydreamers purely and simply out of creative envy, as they were tricked into adopting someone else’s vision of success and achievement, which involved fitting a mould of societal expectations. Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand that, to live in a peaceful and productive society, some social norms are required, as unbridled creativity can become a hindrance if not tempered by a need to live harmoniously. But, the world we currently live in has seen the pendulum swing too far the other way and we are now submerged by a sea of milquetoast, bland sameness, because we are too afraid to stand out. 

Case in point: all the houses in my neighbourhood look the same, I can find the same chain retail outlets coast to coast and most new hospitality projects in  my hometown surf on that popular scandinavian-muted-pastels-simple-geometric-forms aesthetic that makes me want to puke my guts out. When creativity is considered a dispensable luxury, I truly believe that we are missing a tremendous opportunity.

Why is it important?

While some people are able to be more readily creative than others, the truth is that we are all creative at all times, every day of the week. It’s just that a lot of those creative acts go unnoticed and uncelebrated. Finding a way to prevent that pesky raccoon into your trash is a creative act. Negotiating peace for good with your asshole neighbour over who should clear that shared driveway - close to home for many of us - is another. Substituting that missing ingredient for something else in that favourite recipe of yours after the local grocery store has closed, yet another. What happens in the public’s perception is that the celebrated acts of creativity are the big, obvious ones. Just the same way we revere the biggest Hollywood stars without paying attention to the extremely talented local comedian, while forgetting that the big star was once a starving, unknown comedian. 

However, it’s these little creative achievements that we rarely take the time to acknowledge and celebrate, because they don’t appear to be significant in the grand scheme of things, that are the foundation of a truly creative mind. The reality is that a lot of small creative achievements often lead to major breakthroughs over time.

Because of that cultural misperception of creativity - the notion that creativity is a nice luxury better left to artists, us creative professionals can be very easily suckered into embracing that point of view. By letting other people define what we do and how we’re being creative, we relinquish the opportunity to fully express creativity by allowing the inherently messy, convoluted and sometimes lengthy creative process to be whittled down to the idea of a black box, out of which great ideas are thought to magically come out of. In the real world, creative professions have a critical need, to give themselves the time to be creative when facing a new problem that requires an innovative solution. 

I personally battle with this every day. In my role as a photographer of the built environment, people often assume that I can just show up and snap pictures of their latest creation and voila, their desired money shots magically appears. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but the reality isn’t that clear-cut or even easy to understand. I can mitigate a lot of the random factors in the process of shooting architecture, by codifying some of the steps I need to take in order to document a project, but I also have to constantly ensure that I make room for serendipity and allow for random disruptions, thoughts, situations and interactions to affect the process so that I can come up with the money shots that my clients have come to expect. 

In other words, I have to make room for creativity by not constraining the process too much, in order to avoid making every single one of my shoots look the same. Invariably, a handful of shots, sometimes the best ones, are the ones that weren’t planned, noticed after I’ve packed all my gear and I am on my way out. Sometimes, what appeared to be a dud during the photoshoot, turns into a money shot with some clever editing.

Ultimately, creativity is important because it is the mechanism by which we solve puzzles and contributes to the progress of mankind. Granted, some creative ideas are literally and figuratively destined for the toilet, but Dude Wipes can’t be faulted for being uncreative, especially if you look into the way they market themselves. I would go as far as  arguing that ass wipes are almost as important to the progress of mankind as the design of the Apollo space program was, as they both require liberal amounts of creativity, in the form of original ideas that were never thought of before. Granted, the impact of these two creative extremes is clearly not going to be the same and history will judge them accordingly, but creativity is the fuel to innovation’s rocket. There is no innovation without creativity and unexploited creativity is wasted potential.

Creativity is a process

The aforementioned little creative acts that we perform everyday and that we often don’t acknowledge are great to practice one’s creative muscle, simply by remembering that we can come up with new ideas to solve old problems pretty much all the time. If one improves their creative output by 1% every day, after a year, it amounts to a 3700% improvement! By building a creative muscle and deliberately practicing a little creativity every day, one can train that muscle to flex on a regular basis. In short order, this skill can be leveraged to solve increasingly complex problems. It certainly requires discipline but the upside of doing this for a significant amount of time can be huge.

The creative discipline can be codified, through empirical experimentation, as it will be different for everyone. As an experiment of one, it needs to be nurtured and improved over time. However, it is challenging to teach it to others and share as everyone has different thinking and learning styles. Therefore, it becomes about finding out what works for oneself while being very aware of what constitutes a creative act in order to train our minds to identify and amplify creative thinking, a positive reinforcement of good behaviour. For example, one of the ways I train my creative muscles, is to answer a question every day and come up with 10 different answers to that question. The question can be anything and the answers don’t have to be good. After doing this for more than 5 years, I can confidently say that my ability to come up with ideas is far ahead of what it used to be before I started this daily practice.

How to make room for creativity?

Often, though not always, the workplace, much like K-12 schooling can be very stifling for creativity, as it aims to conform the workforce to set schedules, spaces and work processes. Some structure is necessary to run a lean, mean business, but one has to be careful to strike a balance between giving workers enough space and freedom to be creative while at the same time keeping the essential structures in place that don’t make a workplace total chaos. I’ve seen very positive improvements in workplace design of the last few years, where the environment is designed to create the space for serendipity and chance encounters, which are fuel for fostering a creative environment.

I recently came up on this quote by Simon Sinek that is the perfect aphorism to describe this issue in the workplace:

“Rule books tell people what to do. Frameworks guide people how to act. Rule books insist on discipline. Frameworks allow for creativity.”

The same way the creative process is unique to each and everyone of us, a workplace culture that makes room for creativity will be different for each business, as a big part of that environment will come from what the company is about and how it operates.

While ultimately each person has a different way of being creative and expressing it, there are some near-universal principles that can get us started on the path to creativity. First of all, a lot of creative ideas come from random connections that our brains make. That’s one of the reasons why more and more people live in cities, all over the world. Cities have the unique ability to create the possibility of random encounters and serendipitous connections that enable us to have creative breakthroughs. By the same token, it is well documented that a lot of major discoveries have been made completely by accident, such as penicillin.

Second, happy accidents being the fertile ground for creative ideas, it is always helpful to make more room for serendipity in our lives. Talking to random strangers at a party, daydreaming while bare feet in the grass (the skin to ground connection is said to enable certain thought patterns to emerge), taking long showers, going on a trip to an unfamiliar location or merely wandering aimlessly around your neighbourhood are all things that contribute to the emergence of creative thoughts.

How that translates in the workplace is both in the physical and cultural realms. In the physical world, it’s important to create literal spaces for random encounters to happen. There is a reason why the water cooler is so well known for facilitating these interactions, as it creates a social space for people to mingle and engage in small talk, which can lead to new and innovative ideas, we’ve all had that eureka moment that happens when someone says something seemingly innocuous.

In the cultural realm, it means that the organizational culture recognizes and encourages employees to experience different work environments that are suited for different tasks and that they be given freedom to play around and find what works best for them. Maybe that local cafe is where your top employee is the most productive. If that’s the case, why stifle them by making this impossible instead of seeing the potential of increased productivity and give them the freedom to work as they see fit, where they see fit?

In practical terms, what you need to do to foster creativity will look very different from what the next guy needs to do, but being aware of those issues and willing to do something is a great first step. As for developing a culture and implementing policies encouraging creativity and innovation, it requires you to take a deep look at the current state of affairs and find out which are the gaps in creativity that need to be filled.

Parting words on trust.

Being creative requires us to be in an environment where we feel safe to unleash our potential. To do so, we need to be able to trust the people around us that our expression of vulnerability, which is what creativity essentially is, isn’t going to come back to bite us in the ass. It’s up to leaders to create a trusting and trustworthy environment where we can fully express ourselves. It also begs the question: why are we still largely operating on a model where employees have to come into work everyday, to sit at a tiny cubicle and punch in the clock, when the work could just as easily be done from a jungle villa in Nicaragua? 

Perhaps it’s time to apply a little creativity in the way we work and develop our own idiosyncratic ways of working that make us more creative and innovative, instead of copying what everybody else is doing?

Special thanks to Pete VonDeLinde for bringing the joy of Dude Wipes into my world.

Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - in order to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.

If you have questions about this article or rvltr, or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaud{at}rvltr.studio.

Why Procurement Sucks And What You Can Do About It

Reading time ~10 minutes

ACME Corp. procurement officer.

Procurement sucks. Having to bend over backwards in order to jump through hoops on fire over a trap lined with spikes while being chased by a hungry tiger is no cakewalk. Yet, many creative professionals put up with it as it is culturally accepted that, working for free and giving away intellectual property is a small price to pay in order to get work. And in certain cases, it may make sense. But in most of them it doesn’t and more often than not both parties end up worse off as a result of doing business in that fashion.

People in charge of procurement with public dollars have to do what they can, to ensure that the money is well-spent and that there is a high level of accountability within public institutions, for taxpayers to be able to transparently see how their money is spent. Whether this is what actually happens in the real world is another touchy debate that I won’t delve into here.

If one is procuring commodities, traditional procurement makes sense. Whether the Toronto police gets their cars from one dealer or another, they’ll basically get the same product. The main thing being negotiated is price, but the cars come from the same factory. Same for stationery, whether your paper pads come from Staples or Grand & Toy, any difference in quality will be too insignificant to notice and even if somehow you ended up with a subpar paper pad, you’ll probably survive the ordeal.

The problem is when professional services are being treated like commodities. If you listen to one of my past podcasts, Toon Dreessen talks about the absurdity of some situations he’s found himself in. One story that stuck with me is the conversation he had with a stationery procurement officer who did not understand why an architect was required for this project and treated it like she treated paper.

As providers of professional services in the design field, architects know very well that a solution cannot be prescribed in good conscience before a proper diagnostic of the client’s challenges has been made. A doctor practicing that way would be stripped of his credentials and likely sent to jail, yet, procurement processes expect architects to do exactly that. This is a maddening proposition that makes no sense and can actually be harmful.

It really begs the question: why are procurement departments acting so shortsightedly? I genuinely don’t have a clear answer so far, but if we look at how they are incentivized, perhaps we can find the beginning of an explanation. Procurement’s job is to procure something at the lowest cost, as their mandate is to save their employer’s money. Which makes sense if we’re talking about stationery. But when it comes to design services, it has been well established by now, that the cost of designing a building has little to do with its total cost over a lifetime both in terms of capital costs (construction) and operational costs (life-cycle and maintenance), as the design cost is a fraction of the capital cost, which can be itself a fraction of the operational cost.

If a building is designed to save 50% in operational costs over its lifetime, isn’t that worth a higher design fee? And the architect who can confidently deliver on that promise should naturally command a higher price, as his services are more valuable than that of the architect whose designs will cost more operationally. Yet, when procuring these services, these facts are often ignored and the lowest bidder wins. I’m not even going to go into how some firms bid at a loss to “stay busy” and keep their employees on the payroll, while counting on charging for extras, a.k.a. playing the “gotcha” game to stay profitable.

Due to their very mandate, keeping costs low at all cost - pun intended - procurement people are not your friends, as they are by nature asked to undermine you and the value of your services at every turn. Put yourself in their shoes, what would you do in their place?

Your mission as a designer is to solve problems and the more complex those problems are, the more you ought to be paid for it, as this is inherently valuable to your clients, until their procurement departments get involved…

What’s the solution? In the case of public money, I’m not sure there is a solution short of legislating on the matter in order to make the procurement process holistic, and incidentally the topic of an upcoming Single Serves podcast, also with Dreessen. As far as the private sector is concerned, this is where I see a great opportunity to break away from the uncompensated pitch, were we too often give ideas away for free in the hope of getting our pittance.

On one hand, professional service providers have to grow a pair and stop grovelling to their clients’ every whim and tell them when they’re being unreasonable with their demands of a 578-page proposal including a fully resolved building design, construction documents, their staff’s full employment history, including their immigration status - as applicable - as well as their grandmother’s birth certificate and their kids weekly school menu, and I’m barely exaggerating. If what they’re asking for has no relevance to the provision of the service, you are perfectly within your right to tell them off, politely but firmly as you now know they’re just dicking you around.

Imagine if you went on a first date with someone and they keep rescheduling, changing the venue, until you finally get to meet them in person after 10 reschedules and then they spend the entire date fucking with you, keeping you guessing and asking a lot of very deep and personal questions without revealing anything about themselve, wouldn’t you walk away? You would, because you intuitively know that it’s not gonna get better over time. The same goes for your clients. If they metaphorically fuck with you by being unreasonable, chances are they won’t suddenly change if they ever hire you and you’re better off leaving them to your competition.

On the other hand, private companies who feel like they “have to” go through a complex and byzantine procurement process to hire professional service providers, really ought to ask themselves how that’s gonna serve them in the long term. This is where there is a shift that needs to happen, from the cost of the service to the value.

A big part of demonstrating that value is, I’m afraid, your responsibility. It’s a tough job, but not impossible, it merely requires a concerted effort and the development of a long term view of your business’ growth. In this age of crazed and insanely fast (too much so in my opinion) startup funding, venture capital and IPOs, in the vein of the “break things and move fast” credo of Facebook, one really has to sit back and ask “What am I really trying to accomplish here?” Maybe “slowing down and mending things” isn’t such a bad idea after all.

From there, it is possible that the answers will start coming to you and with a healthy dose of courage, one can dig oneself out of this hellhole that is procurement. The alternative is to remain a commodity who’s being mistreated at every turn by clients who are total dicks and are not even apologetic about it.

Which do you want to be?

Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - in order to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.

If you have questions about this article or rvltr, or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaud{at}rvltr.studio.

Spaces, The Final Frontier. These are the...

Image via Pexels.

Reading time ~10 minutes

I’ve recently dived into the world of commercial interior design, both out of sheer curiosity and also as a form of informal research to understand better some of the challenges my clients are experiencing when tackling complex, large interiors projects. This writing is the result of multiple interviews and conversations with interior designers, both from large and small firms in order to see where commercial interiors are headed in the near future.

I’m going to present the most inspiring of these ideas and expand a little bit on them to give them some context around three main themes:

1. The importance of human to human interaction and human-centric design.

While we constantly hear about the impending doom of the approaching singularity and the resulting rise of our AI overlords, for the time being, people still don’t like to interact with machines, mainly on account of the fact that we haven’t been able to design machines that convincingly replicate a human to human experience. The uncanny valley makes our interactions with machines mostly weird and uncomfortable. In other words, it’s not anytime soon that the majority of workers will be replaced by machines, especially to replace human-to-human interactions.

This is why designing workplaces that foster face to face, wholesome relationships is critically important for our well-being. There is increasing evidence that a holistic approach to life where we don’t spend all our waking hours working, but rather strive to live fulfilled, balanced lives with a healthy dose of play is beneficial both inside and outside the office. There is more to creating such spaces than bean bags and foosball tables, as the best spaces are the ones that truly reflect a given company’s culture while accommodating the latest findings in workplace health. So bean bags and foosball may be a fit for one company and not another and should not be used as a formula just because they’re cool.

In her article about workplace design, Lois Wellwood further defines the idea of human-centric workplace design, where innovation and productivity come not from prescriptive work environments and scheduled interactions, but rather from visual and physical access to other people (Gensler’s research tells us that levels of  interaction decrease exponentially as workers are further removed from one another), which in turns allows for unplanned and casual interactions. In other terms, there is an increasing body of research out there that has identified some universal principles that can help us design better workplaces.

However, these principles are not prescriptive of how a space should be designed, but rather act as a sort of guideline for which attributes will make the space better for its users. On top of that, it is a designer’s duty to to deep-dive into their clients culture in order to come up with a design that reflects said culture and contribute to make a workplace that embodies the organizational values of the client.

This is where a skilled designer will be able to artfully blend a scientifically-sound approach, backed by research, with a creative ability to design spaces that actually improves the worker’s experience and therefore their productivity.

2. Loose fit, long life.

This is a really interesting idea, in an age where we see a lot of custom work being done for companies so that they can have a cool office with all sorts of gizmos integrated in complicated millwork. Companies such as Gensler understand that technology is rendered obsolete in less time than it takes to say it, and therefore design their spaces to accommodate technology, without making its upgrading overly complicated e.g., having to rip out an entire wall just to replace a projector. This makes office spaces somewhat future proof, and easy to upgrade or retrofit for a new tenant.

The main idea behind this is to design for the common denominator and not the exception. Take for example someone who loves camping in the wilderness and goes on average camping once a month for 3-4 days. When looking to buy their next car, they are naturally inclined to buy a big, off-road capable SUV, because the trunk space and the ground clearance will come handy once a month. At the same time, they spend 90% of their time driving around the city, routinely parking in garages or squeezing in between a hydrant and another car that’s taking 50% more space than it needs to. They essentially buy their car for the once-a-month exception, when they should really consider a small, hybrid or electric car that will get them easily around the city, save them a lot on gas and maintenance and be much easier to park in tight spots. Then, when that person needs a big truck to go play in the mud they can always rent one for the weekend (not to mention that if it gets destroyed you only have to cover the deductible - I speak from experience, ask me about the time I destroyed an SUV in Costa Rica).

The same goes for designing workspaces. If 40% percent of an office’s desks are empty at all times, why not implement a hot desk system where people settle with their networked laptop for the day wherever is most convenient to them at that moment in time? I discovered such a set-up on a recent visit to a large Toronto architecture firm that recently significantly downsized their office when they realized that out of their 70+ employees, they only ever had 50 to 55 of them in the office at any given point in time.

Taking the idea further, we can imagine many a set-up for how an office should work for its employees. That’s where design comes in to determine solutions that are tailored to each situation. The aforementioned hot-desking policy is not a solution for every company, but it made sense for that one when they were looking for efficiency gains, which allowed them to move from an office that was somewhat tricky to access by transit to a downtown core office near practically every major transit option in the city. This, in turn, allowed them to retain employees that were increasingly moving out to the suburbs as a result of being priced out of the downtown area.

3. Experiences.

Designing great looking spaces used to be enough to get people in the door. You’d dazzle them with spiffy finishes and thick carpet and the novelty alone would be enough to make them walk out the door with a smoking credit card and a bunch of stuff in their hands. Nowadays, people can find stuff cheaper and faster on Amazon and have it delivered the same day for practically nothing (thanks amazon prime). Consequently, retail spaces have to provide amazing experiences where people come for more than just shopping. Whether it’s a hands-on experience, coupled with unparalleled customer service (Apple stores), or a local café where the space is designed to cheer you up in the morning on your way to work (Milky’s), the spaces we frequent every day affect us. Working extra hard at making those experiences positive is a great way to differentiate oneself from the competition in markets where the product/service is commoditized. Even a notoriously commoditized brand like Samsung has started to recognize that with their latest Canadian flagship store. It is not a place where people go to buy stuff (they can do that from anywhere), rather a place where people get to experience the products and learn more about them, which is not a bad thing when you’re going to blow 5K + on a kitchen appliance.

However, experiences are increasingly becoming continuous, multi-channel experiences, where one may go to the flagship store to touch and feel the product and then go to the manufacturer’s website to read more, look at specs and make a final decision, before engaging with the brand on social media only to finally buy it from a reseller. This is where brands like Apple, Tesla and IKEA demonstrate the value of being in control of all steps of the experience. Samsung may control some of these steps such as the flagship store and their website, but since their products are sold by many different retailers, that’s where the experience breaks down, because they are not in control of what the experience is like at many of these retailers. Conversely, Apple controls 99.9% of its users’ experiences, from the website, to the Apple Store, to the customer and product service. The only time they relinquish control is for small, local, third-party retailers, but you can bet that they put a lot of contractual conditions on authorized resellers for them to retain their status and ensure a great experience. That’s also one of the reasons why Tesla doesn’t rely on conventional dealer networks to sell their wares. They are smart enough to know that car dealers variable geometry ethics would not serve them in the long term.

It is the companies who master all aspects of a customer’s experience, are willing to look beyond the obvious and tackle the most seemingly insignificant touch points with their customers who will come out ahead in the future, even Terry O’Reilly says so.

Conclusion:

We’ve covered 3 interesting ideas that are currently shaping commercial design and architecture: the human need for connection, designing adaptable spaces and providing users with unparalleled experiences. In my opinion, they are all deeply related to organizational culture and a reflection of how businesses think about about and present themselves to the world. They all challenge our preconceived notions about design, but are also essential to achieve the highest caliber of design. In such an uber-competitive landscape, firms who want to attract and retain the best talent not only need a solid cultural foundation, but also work out of spaces that embody that culture.

Firms who do not pay heed to the latest development in corporate design are destined to remain second-rate players, because the smart ones will continue to work really hard at improving themselves in every area.

Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - in order to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.

If you have questions about this article or rvltr, or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaud{at}rvltr.studio.

The Truth On Architectural Imagery

Reading time ~10 minutes

Introduction:

The latest developments of evolutionary psychology teach us that our sensory perception of reality is not the window into the truth that we’ve assumed it was for a long time. Rather, it’s more like a metaphorical desktop on a computer, where the reality of the computing power if hidden behind symbolic representations of reality (e.g. the file folders on a virtual desktop). That helps us accomplish our tasks without being burdened by the minutiae of the computer’s inner workings, which would never allow me to easily and effortlessly write this piece as I was able to do, if I had to literally try and understand how everything works in a computer, down to micron-sized transistors.

What that means in concrete terms, is that evolutionary psych. tells us that we don’t see the world as it really but rather that we interpret it, these interpretations being a reflection of our evolutionary fitness. I.e., we have evolved interpretations of reality that allowed us to survive and thrive.

By the same token, since there is no such thing as an accurate perception of reality, the same goes for how we create visual media that represent the world around us. I would go as far as saying - in the example of a photograph or video of a space - that the very act of creating and designing an image of a space or building is in itself an interpretation of the object itself, influenced by the mind creating it. Not to mention the fact that we lose the 3rd and 4th dimensions (the 4th being time) and reduce the representation of the space to a 2-dimensional plane. Therefore, there can be no accurate representations of the physical space, as it’s always going to be incomplete, due to the missing dimensions.

As we just demonstrated that we cannot by design, perceive - and therefore  - represent the world around us in a truthful manner, we cannot expect an imperfect representation, or rather approximation of reality to be truthful. Not to mention that visual media in architecture is further removed from reality due to the subjective interpretation of the creative mind crafting the media, reality and truth is a myth that can never be reached.

Now that this is out of the way, what does it mean with regards to the truth and narrative in architectural media? Well, I’m glad you asked and we can proceed to answer to this question from two different perspectives, each considering a discrete aspect of the architectural documentation process.

The commercial aspect:

Architects are professional service providers and as such, have to be able to show their work in its best light, in order to convince prospects to hire them. To do that, a portfolio of images is a critical tool in the sales process. Much like any other kind of commercial photography, one can make a case that doctoring images in order to rid the iconography of the things that don’t convey the vision of the architect is fair game, and that’s the opinion of one of my peers. If you look at food or automotive photography, these guys routinely cheat in order to get images that represent the ideal of the product they’re selling and not the product itself, as you and I would experience it.

Even though what other industries are doing can be pretty dramatic in term of how far they’re willing to go to make a product look better than it actually is, nobody is ever accusing them of lying or being dishonest. That’s because if you go buy that burger or that car as a result of seeing an idealized version of it in an ad, you will still get the same thing, it just won’t look as good in the physical world, but it’ll still taste the same or perform as promised.

The same can be said of architecture and in this context, I think it’s OK for architects to fairly dramatically alter images if the end result is not quite what the original intent was. For example, I have more than once digitally “stained” wood finishes on a building’s exterior that was initially supposed to be a very dark stained finish, but had never been finished and was therefore showing up as a much lighter tone of wood than the architect intended. In that context, I personally have no qualms making such a change.

We also routinely remove electrical outlets, smoke alarms and exit signs that are both unsightly and create visual clutter. What we end up with is a clean, more focused imagery that better conveys the sense of space in my opinion, which in turn serves the commercial intent of these images.

All those changes do not fundamentally alter the physical experience of the space and do not speak to its performance. Again, let’s keep in mind that we are talking about 2 dimensional interpretations of a space the we experience in 4 dimensions and that there is no substitute for an in-person experience. In that sense, any image, doctored or not, is always going to be a somewhat deceitful representation of the space.

The ethical aspect:

Now, from an ethical perspective, one could convincingly argue that doctoring images is dishonest and does not represent the project as it is. Ignoring for a moment that a photograph (or a movie) is an incomplete representation of the physical space because it lacks 1 or 2 dimensions, an argument can be made that architectural media should take on a more documentary-like approach to the craft.

Supposing that this is feasible and realistic, I think it’s a weak argument because even a documentary medium -especially film- tells a story that is a representation of the author’s thoughts and opinions. While the media may not be altered per se, it’s the narrative that expresses an inherently biased opinion. And I think that’s the crux of the issue, that short of directly experiencing a space or a building, any other form of representation, doctored or not represents the artists’ biased view through a narrative. It is therefore very difficult to say that a photograph (or movie) is a truthful representation of reality

A few years ago, and incident with the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) made the news when it was revealed that an award winning building image set had been doctored, where unsightly (and very visible) air handling units on the roof of the building were removed in post production at the behest of the architect. In the article quoted above, Blair Kamin, the Chicago Tribune’s architectural critic described the oversight as follows:

“So the honor award puzzled me. How could a jury of respected architects from out of town have missed this glaring misstep? Easily, it turned out.

Unlike the AIA's national awards, which require that at least one juror visit a short-listed building, or the Pritzker Architecture Prize, whose jury travels extensively, jurors for the Chicago AIA honors typically don't inspect buildings firsthand. There simply isn't the time or money. The jury meets for just one day. In the distinguished building category, there are scores of entries (134 this year), and they consist of projects from all over the world. So according to people who administer the contest, the jurors consider required materials (design statements and photographs) as well as floor and site plans, which are optional.”

To me, the issue is only partially the responsibility of the architect and/or the photographer. In this case, it’s clearly the jury process itself that created conditions for a doctored image set to allow for Juan Moreno’s building to win an award.

The AIA has since issued new rules for their award submissions regarding retouched images, although I couldn’t find these rules in my research. I think it’s great change, because when it comes to awards, we step outside of the realm of strictly commercial photography and that we can and should reasonably expect images to not be purposely deceiving. It can easily be speculated that the building wouldn’t have won the award, had the images not be photoshopped. Since awards don’t have as much of a commercial component (although some privately-owned award competitions are huge money makers for the organizers, but that’s a debate for another article) and are supposed to be an objective assessment of the entries and determine the winners based on the merit of the work, there should be an expectation that images not be modified and in my opinion, it falls on the organizers to demand more truthful imagery.

Similarly, publications reporting on architecture, have a moral duty to ensure that the projects they publish are not overtly deceiving as it erodes the reputation of both the magazines and the designers, especially when it comes to publicly accessible architecture that can be experienced by the general public. It would be very damaging for a magazine to talk up an innovative building only to find out that half the innovations are being impeded by some unsightly design element.

Conclusion:

I don’t believe that the conclusions we can draw from this topic are either black or white. Ultimately, each player in the process, be they photographers, architects, publications, award organizers or critics have a duty to ensure that they’re not purposely deceiving their public.

I think the amount of doctoring that should be tolerated should fall on a spectrum from heavily retouched, to very slightly retouched and that were the imagery falls on the spectrum is dependent of what one is comfortable with and what is appropriate for the intended usage of the images.

Some architects and photographers will have specific opinion in favour for the more honest side of the spectrum while others will unabashedly put out images that have less to do with reality and more with the commercial aspect of their practice. Azure published a very well thought-out article on the topic last year and their conclusion was thoughtful and fairly accurate representation of the variety of opinions that are out there.

I personally do a fair amount of retouching but I do draw the line at doing work that would alter the architecture and represent the space in a way that could never happen in reality. Outlets, exits signs and smoke alarms are all fair game and so are blemishes on a wall, reflections in glass, etc. I am also a little more liberal for residential work as the issues we fix are often a matter of the construction process not being faithful to the original vision or the client making changes without the architect’s knowledge.

I would generally say that restraint and common sense are ultimately our best allies. I’m a big fan of trusting my gut when it comes to making decisions that aren’t easy and the science backs me up on this.

I think the biggest takeaway from this discussion is that we ought to be very conscious of the impact the decisions we make will have down the road and act accordingly within the boundaries of what each of us is comfortable with. The rest is just noise.

Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - in order to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.

If you have questions about this article or rvltr, or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaud{at}rvltr.studio.

The 15 deadly sins of architecture firms' websites

By Arnaud Marthouret ~ 25 min read (perfect for the holidays and better than arguing with aunt Shirley drunk on Eggnog!)

Photo by ahmed adly

My dear readers, I like you and deeply care about your sanity. So much so that I am willing to subject myself to mind-numbing experiments on your behalf. I recently inflicted my own self an agonizing, lengthy ordeal in order to help you build better websites and more generally, communications (anyone knows a good therapist?).

I perused dozens of architectural firms websites, picked at random, based on my own personal knowledge of the field. I did so in order to see if I could distill some trends out of my empirical observations and pinpoint to common mistakes architecture firms make when presenting themselves and their work on the web.

Do keep in mind that this is by no means a data-driven, factual research report, but more of a subjective sweep of what’s out there, coated with a thick layer of opinionated commentary. Feel free to take everything I say with a grain of salt. You are of course welcome to vehemently disagree, but I hope this will at least help you think of your work and how you talk about it in different terms.

This non-scientific study parameters:

The websites were picked at random, based on my personal preferences, from tiny, local firms that I know personally, to Starchitects’ websites. All have in common that they do good, intelligent and thoughtful work in their own way and that I have a lot of respect for each of those firms’ body of work. Their websites? That’s another story.

In order to protect the innocent, I am also intentionally keeping these firms anonymous, because the point of this exercise isn’t to point fingers. Instead, I will pick among them, detailed and specific examples of naughty behaviours, that in my opinion set them back when it comes to promoting themselves and attracting new clients into their world.

Onto the sins:

1. The “I’m too cool for school” vibe

Some of the larger firms I surveyed, amongst which are a couple of starchitects, go into lengthy, obscure and frankly, boring descriptions of their philosophy and work, in a language that is at best obfuscating and at worst, purposely misleading. I don’t personally believe that one can have a clearly defined vision when employing such unclear language. Here’s a telling example, including all oxymorons, grammatical errors, clumsy metaphors and ivory tower naïveté:

ACME’s* architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes. Not least due to the influence from multicultural exchange, global economical [sic] flows and communication technologies that all together require new ways of architectural and urban organization. We believe that in order to deal with today’s challenges, architecture can profitably move into a field that has been largely unexplored. A pragmatic utopian architecture that steers clear of the petrifying pragmatism of boring boxes and the naïve utopian ideas of digital formalism. Like a form of programmatic alchemy we create architecture by mixing conventional ingredients such as living, leisure, working, parking and shopping. By hitting the fertile overlap between pragmatic and utopia, we architects once again find the freedom to change the surface of our planet, to better fit contemporary life forms.

The fix: write in a style that your 3rd grade nephew or 90 year-old can understand instantly. If they don’t understand, nobody will bother reading through the whole write-up.

2. The gamified website (a variation of #1)

Looks like a 1980’s Atari video game, with tiny buttons, no hierarchy and a very confusing navigation. If a website is meant to convey information efficiently and quickly, this type of website is purposely designed to achieve the opposite. As a strategy to make people work for satisfying their need for information, it works. As a way to get people to engage with your firm, work and ideas, it’s an epic fail.

The fix: clear, understated and well organized information in the form of an easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing website, beats cute and clever any day. Additionally, cute and clever doesn’t work well with the idea of a professional services firms. There are other, more subtle ways to show originality and quirkiness that don’t scream “I’m a four-year old trapped in a 50-year old body”.

3. The poorly translated website

On this kind of website, in the case of firms whose first language is not English, one will find major spelling mistakes and grammatical errors worthy of a 6th grader in his first year of learning english (refer to #1 for a example of this subtly rife with weird english). Not a good way to make a great first impression on a potential client, especially if your firm’s goal is to produce high-end architecture. A timeless example of this is one firm listing their hard-earned “prizes” under the header “prices”. Priceless. Pun intended.

The fix: hire a professional translator and then have a native-speaking copywriter rewrite your website’s copy in the desired language, ensuring that they keep the spirit of your ideas alive.

4. The website so bad that you leave without looking at it

One can tell that it probably started 10-15 years ago as a half-decent website, but a lifetime of poorly managed updates done internally by some intern who learned to code on the fly and an outdated layout make for a terrible experience. If the bounce rate is really high (say higher than 80% - if you don’t know what that means, time to hire a web guy) and the average session duration is under a minute, then that’s a pretty reliable indication that most people are being turned off by your homepage, let alone any other page on your website.

The fix: invest in a new, up-to-date and well-designed website. Never hire the cheapest guy and make sure that your web guy is equally comfortable with the technical aspects of building a website, as he is with the design and creative side. If you don’t have the budget, sign-up for a template website service like Squarespace or Format and use one of their beautiful, ready-to-use templates. There is no excuse for a 2007-looking website.

5. The endless list of prizes and awards

This one is tricky, because awards and prizes most definitely contribute to the reputation of your firm and are a great way to validate your work via third-party endorsements. But, most people don’t care about the awards you’ve earned as they tell your prospects nothing about your ability to solve their problems. It’s OK to mention them as a form of positive-reinforcement of your expertise, after you’ve told people who you are, what you do and who you do it for. I believe it is misguided to use an awards list as a opening salvo.

The fix: put them somewhere inconspicuous and only as a way to reinforce your expertise and use it as a third-party endorsement. Be subtle about it and ensure that you don’t come off as bragging or overly egotistical.

6. The publication whore

Similarly to #5 above, nobody really cares about how many publications you’ve been in. Don’t get me wrong, being published should be a critical part of your communication strategy and you should actively try to get published, but a list of publications does not communicate to your clients how you’re going to help them assuage their fears and reach their goals. Use them as a third-party recommendation for your clients, in a way that helps them validate their decision, but it should never be a sales argument as being published has no bearing on your ability to deliver for your clients. It merely indicates that you have good relationships with publications or a really good publicist.

The fix: Keep a running list list of publications on your website if you wish to, but do not put it front and center and do not use it as a way to sell your expertise, or you’ll be selling the wrong expertise (unless you are a PR firm). I would go as far as saying that you should only keep a list of publications internally (that’s very important) and perhaps occasionally promote the really important ones, especially if they help in demonstrating your expertise. I’d bet my lunch that no client will ever ask you to produce such a list.

7. The generic “about us” and other self-descriptive statements

This one speaks for itself, as the majority of architects describe themselves in a similar language. While said statements may not be inherently bad, it’s the fact that virtually every firm uses the same verbiage that’s a problem. Your prospects end up being confused as to what you do differently from the next guy and end up comparing you with other architects solely on price as they have no other significant metric to separate you from the rest in a sea of similar-sounding firms.

My friend Nikita Morell recently talked about this, expressing disappointment at a firm claiming they had “an appetite for design”. You’re a professional, I sure hope that you have an appetite for design. Would you buy a car from a dealer just because he says he “loves cars”? I hope he does!

The challenge with this is that it requires more than just revised copy, it is often also an indication that the culture of the firm is a “by-default” one and that the founders never took the time to really challenge themselves to think of their work in ways that makes them unique. While possible, it is incredibly challenging to take an established firm and change its culture after years of operation. The situation is not hopeless but it requires a lot of courage in order to re-position the firm in way that makes it one of the top players in a narrow niche. See mistake #1 for a corollary to this one.

Below are some real-life examples:

“ACME* Architects is a world-renowned design firm with a multicultural team of 140 people from more than twenty countries. ACME* combines the disciplines of architecture, urban planning, interior design, landscape design, graphic design, and product design into a single integrated practice. ACME’s* award winning designs and reputation have attracted many prestigious commissions.”

Translation: There is nothing about us that makes us unique and our expertise is very broad, yet shallow. We are just like about every other firm of our expertise and size and we use wordy, yet meaningless language to make it look like we don’t.

“We use contextual and confident design to add value to the communities and clients we work with. We are committed to finding the right solution for each project, responding to a scheme's physical and cultural contexts as well as the aspirations of our clients.”

Translation: We do the work that every architect is trained for and expected to do, but we’re using flowery language to pretend we’re different.

“ACME* Architects is an award-winning architectural practice. Our focus is creating thoughtful, well-crafted environments that articulate a clear idea and a heightened sense of place. We believe collaboration is essential to the making of a successful project. We respect and engage a process that is organic and iterative, governed by the principle that every client and site is unique. We strive to create inventive, beautiful spaces that are available to everyone and for any budget.”

Translation: We’re very expensive and do beautiful, highly customized  work, but we are trying to convince you that we can work with your no-budget project. Also see #5.

“We passionately believe that inventive, beautiful form should be available to everyone, at any budget. Our designs aim to reflect contemporary lifestyles, values, and our collective imagination. As part of our design process we pursue concepts that are explored and expanded project after project, to suit individual client needs, particular site conditions, densities, etc. It is in the idiosyncrasies of each design solution that the project comes to life.”

Translation: We’re dreamers and even though we’d very much like to be affordable to the masses, our very design process itself puts us out of mere mortals’ reach. If you hire us, we guarantee you an emotional roller-coaster of a project.

It is important to note again that I am not criticizing the body of work of these architects, but merely critiquing the way they talk about it. My interpretation of the above statements, does not imply that this is how they work, as I have no first hand knowledge of their work process. Rather, it just gives examples of the types of reactions, or subconscious interpretations, some of their prospects may have when reading their verbiage. While I write this with my tongue firmly in cheek and tend to exaggerate a little bit in order to make a point, I truly believe that there is a lot of room for improvement.

The mistaken belief that architects can be all things to all people is the underlying philosophy behind these confusing statements. However, facts tell a different story as the most successful architecture firms in the last hundred or so years, are those that have embraced a very clear positioning in the marketplace and ruthlessly adhered to it over the years. My friend Dave Sharp recently wrote an article about this on our blog.

(In the very slim off-chance that you’re from one of the firms I quoted above, I have genuine respect for your work, please don’t take this personally. I would be delighted to have a conversation with you on how to improve your communications).

The fix: Be bold and original. If your office description uses similar language to 10 other randomly-picked architects’ websites, you’re not being bold enough.

8. The freely accessible assets and intellectual property

You work hard to produce content that is of value to your clients. PDF portfolios, white papers, articles, lectures and seminars are valuable to your clients and are a tremendous way to establish your expertise in your area. Why would you give it away for free? Behind any of these pieces is an opportunity to connect with new and exciting prospects. I’m not necessarily advocating to ask people to pay for it, although you’re certainly encouraged to experiment with that. But the law of reciprocity (a classic sales tactic rooted in psychology) says that if you give away something of value for free, you can reasonably be expected to get something in return, in this case, the contact information of the people who access your assets.

It is a tremendous way to capture new prospects in your lead pipeline and it would be a wasted opportunity to not engage with people that have already expressed an interest in what you do and let your competitors sweep them away from you.

The fix: Decide which of your assets are freely accessible and which you want to put behind a sign-up wall or even a pay wall. At revelateur, all our articles and podcasts are completely free and publicly accessible. Other valuable resources, however, are behind a sign-up wall (talks, videos, webinars, etc…) so that we can connect with people who interact with our resources and explore the possibility of them being a potential suitable client.

9. The sub-par photography

Many websites have either a portfolio of terrible images or a mix of good and bad photography, which in either case isn’t good. I completely understand that you may not be able to afford a $5000/day photographer who will take pictures worthy of Architectural Record. However, many cost-effective tricks can be employed to make you look better quasi-instantly for a very reasonable cost. Bad imagery is the first thing people will look at and without that, your website will look cheap, no matter how good your projects may be.

The fixes:

• Remove older projects from your portfolio as you complete new ones and have better pictures for the newer ones

  • Cost: absolutely free.

• Get your old images professionally retouched. You can get very decent images out of it for a fraction of the cost of re-shooting. However, the best of retouchers cannot perform miracles, so don’t expect one, but some exposure, color and perspective adjustments can turn a dud into a half-decent image.

  • Cost: ~$50-$200 per image, free if you’re lucky to have a photoshop-savvy intern.

  • Pro-tip: hire a co-op student from a local photography school and have them spend a semester on your existing imagery.

• Define guidelines for your photography: what to shoot, how to shoot it, what to convey, how to stage it and how to put people in your images. Then send your photography-savvy intern to shoot them (don’t be cheap and rent a proper camera and lenses for the day for better results). Then repeat #2.

  • Cost: gear rental ($200-$300/day) and your intern’s time.

• Find newly established photographers who are hungry for portfolio pieces and will work for nearly free. There are people constantly popping up on the market who will work for a fraction of the cost of established photographers and will produce very decent images. Established photographers always like to bitch and moan about these, but we’ve all started that way, yes myself included. And also yes, I’m giving you a free pass to go cheap, but do keep in mind that you get what you pay for. If you’re lucky to find a unicorn who’s incredibly talented and cheap, take advantage of it as they will raise their rates as soon as they realize their worth. If they’re a decent shooter but not great at retouching, hiring a third-party retoucher will cost you a little more, but produce great images.

  • Cost: Cheap-ish, but you get what you pay for.

• Hire visual communication professionals who know what they’re doing and gradually replace your starter portfolio (or re-shoot it) and make sure you budget your photography accordingly. If you can afford it, you have no excuse for skimping on photography.

  • Pro-tip: You don’t need to shoot any and every project, so if photography is too expensive for your entire portfolio, shoot your very best projects and only promote these.

  • Cost: Variable.
    
    

10. The comprehensive, un-curated portfolio

A corollary to mistake #9, your portfolio should be a combination of your best projects as well as projects that are representative of the kind of work you want to do more of. Anything else is a waste of time and space, especially if the photography is sub-par and indicates that you cannot decide what your firm is about, which is a very confusing message to send to your prospects.

The fix: Decide the kind of positioning you want for your business (what you do and who you do it for) and ruthlessly cull the projects from your portfolio that do not support that vision. Remove any emotional attachment, or better yet, have someone else make the decisions so that your portfolio can objectively and clearly reflect your positioning.

11. The unrelated endeavours

You may do very interesting things outside of your professional life, like painting, jewelry or furniture design. While it is very relevant to talk about these casually in order to show your prospects that you’re an interesting person and have a life outside of architecture (people like to find common interests, it makes you relatable), presenting them as an offshoot of your professional occupation and making them as much a part of your portfolio as the rest of your professional work is a critical mistake. They are unrelated and irrelevant to your clients, which sends a confusing message and could work against you. Tesla’s website does not expound on Space X’s accomplishments and vice versa, yet we all know that Elon Musk is the brains behind both endeavours. They are both focused on their respective areas of expertise.

The fix: Don’t sell your jewelry line on your architecture website. Write about it all your want on your blog, speak openly about all your passions in interviews, but do not present it as an integral part of your professional activity. If you really want to link the two, put a discreet link and a few words about that side business in your “about us” page or mention it in your bio.

12. The manufactured culture

Conveying a culture is a really hard challenge as it is constantly straddling the thin line between trying too hard and representing oneself in a manufactured, insincere way. Everybody these days has a “Chief Happiness Officer” (a.k.a. office dog), a very, very tired gimmick if there is one. Put simply, having a dog in the office does not make your office cool or attractive, much less giving it a C-suite title, it just means that someone in the firm likes dogs. The same goes for bean bags, foosball tables and bottomless beer taps, these are nice thing to have, but it’s dangerous to conflate cool design features and furry friends with culture (disclaimer: I love dogs). Trying to convey a culture that doesn’t exist is a very transparent move and your potential clients will see through it very quickly.

Leave the stock images with endlessly happy people and a very bland, trying-too-hard-not-to-offend-anyone language to faceless, giant corporate conglomerates. They’re only fooling themselves into thinking that their corporate culture is anything but not what it’s portrayed to be, when it’s in reality just a top-down hierarchy of disposable people. Conversely, being too quirky is childish and will turn prospects off (see mistake #2).

How does one convey a unique culture without making your website look like the digital equivalent of a clown, with red nose and oversized shoes? Well, first of all, actions speak louder than words, so make sure that whatever you claim to be, will remain true when you’re put to the test. That applies to your offline behaviour as well. As for the website, it’s OK to demonstrate that through minor quirks, easter eggs or unique personality traits (save that for the staff bios), but it should never, ever come at the expense of a clear and concise navigation. Remember that your website is meant to vet and convert visitors into leads. Anytime a feature on your website distracts visitor from its main goal, you’ve eroded a little bit your ability to generate new business. By the way, if you still have a flash-based website in 2018 (yes, yes, I assure you they exist), you’re a terrible person.

Ultimately, there is no hard and fast rule for that one and a firm with a highly-developed and off-beat culture will inherently be able to get away with more quirkiness than a straight-shooting professional services firm. It really depends on how much you’re willing to push the boundaries and how well you know your audience. If you know your audience really well, it’s easier to push the boundaries to the limits.

The fix: There is really no simple solution for this one. It’s a mix of trial and error and depends greatly on how much of yourself you are willing to put out there, for everyone to see. The better you know yourself and your audience as well as having confidence in your culture, the more you’ll be able to put out there in a way that doesn’t look fake or disingenuous. Look around and see what people are doing to find inspiration or examples of what not to do.

A sidebar on the instagram culture: Instagram has transformed all of us in always-happy people living the high life and going through the day merrily hop-skipping on our way to the next meeting. Obvious satirical views of social media above aside, I believe there is a real danger in giving into this curated lifestyle display, as it disconnects us from the challenges of day-to-day reality. It doesn’t mean that we have to go around every day bitching and moaning about life, but it’s important to recognize that life is not always perfect and acknowledge our challenges and how we overcome them, it makes us more real and relatable. I’ve witnessed so many people online pretending to be something they’re not, and I speak from experience as I’ve unwittingly participated in this charade before. It’s now starting to pervade how architects present themselves online, with many of them presenting a highly curated content stream online. Knowing some of them on a personal level, I can guarantee that their day to day life is a far cry from this glamorous facade. Always keep that in mind and take what people say about themselves with a grain of salt.

13. The confusing navigation

A variation of #2 and #4, where the navigation is just not clear at first glance. Quirky names, menus buried into sub- and sub-sub- menus, confusing titles, as well as a lack of organizational and visual hierarchy are among the common culprits.

The human mind is wired in such a way that it looks for certain patterns when looking for information in an unfamiliar environment, be they visual, organizational or linguistic. A website with a navigation that goes against those patterns when presenting information will confuse your visitors and make them much more likely to leave the site sooner than later. Cute and quirky are likely to get in the way of your prospects finding what they need, so if you do, make sure that it doesn’t impede navigation.

The fix: Do a comprehensive audit of your current website to ensure that there are no major hurdles to people finding the information they need right away. Many web professionals know how to do this. If it can be tweaked, tweak it. If it can’t, time to consider a new website.

14. The buried opinion

All the most-compelling taglines and commentary are often buried deep in an architect’s website, if at all, as if they’re hoping that they won’t be read for fear of offending their audience. On the contrary, expressing strong opinions and ideas is a tremendous way to attract the right clients and repel the poor fits. I see too many architects - frankly, the vast majority - who will express strong opinions and views in private, but will cower at the idea to put those very thoughts out for the world to see and enjoy. Most firms, big and small, have incredibly milquetoast descriptions (see #7) of their practice and their approach to practicing architecture, that don’t convey anything but a desire to fit a cultural mold of architecture practice, as if they were saying “Look at me! I too, sound like the rest!” One does not grab attention by claiming to be like the rest, but by making bold moves and grand declarations that nobody else has had the balls to make before.

The fix: Put your thoughts front and center on your website and elsewhere, write a manifesto of what you believe in and do not hesitate to be polarizing. You can be wrong and misguided and will always be forgiven for that. Being bold and wrong is better than being tame and silent about your deepest convictions. One can always recover from a misguided opinion, but one cannot recover from a lifetime of not having the guts to express themselves. One caveat though, having a strong opinion is not a license to be an unadulterated asshole, so please do your best to never cross that line. Some people can get away with a lot more than others, as a function of their culture, so if you’re unsure whether you’ve crossed that line, ask a few friends what they think how your ideas are expressed

15. The unclear positioning

Unless people flock to your door and you are so in demand, that you can afford say no to 90% of the people who want to work with you and charge rates that allow you to generate a healthy profit, you cannot afford to not have a clear positioning that your prospects will understand right away. As explained in #7, a description of your firm and its work that sounds like the majority of other firms places your squarely in the commodity box. That’s where your clients take control of the relationship (something you would ideally never, ever relinquish) and start pulling all sort of nasty tricks. Because you’re now seen as commodity, they have a lot less respect for you and your work.

Conversely, if your - ideally narrow - area of expertise is crystal-clear, from the first time your clients and prospects hear about you and you work hard at maintaining that perception throughout the sales process, then you’ll have a much easier time charging commensurately with the value of your expertise and quality of service, without worrying about scaring people away (that will still happen, but that’s a good thing).

The fix: Make it very, very clear (on your homepage) what you do, who you do it for and how you do it. Spend time whittling down your expertise to a very narrow and deep niche and resist the temptation to try and being all things to all people. Think of your homepage as a billboard, something that can grab people’s attention and a few seconds and will want to make them spend more time on other parts of your website. Bonus points if you can lead your prospects to case studies, in the format brief > problem > solution, that demonstrate said expertise once they’ve landed on your website.

Conclusion

If you made it through this entire marathon of an article, I personally want to thank and praise you. I am well aware that it’s a big commitment to spend 25 or so minutes reading a piece such as this one. However, I like to think that it’s more valuable than 25 minutes wasted on Instagram, or worse, Facebook, don’t you agree?

We’ve covered a lot of ground and there are many more mistakes out there but these were a compilation of the most egregious and/or common ones. If the article has gotten you to think about your website and communications in a new way, then I have reached my goal.

For each of these examples, there is a lot more thinking behind the reasons why I think they are mistakes, some of them are pretty established and widely accepted marketing and communication principles, others are less obvious and would require further writing.

If you have questions about this piece, you are invited to give me a shout here. I’d love nothing more than an engaging conversation on any of these topics!

*ACME, an obviously fictitious name to protect the innocent.

Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - in order to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.

If you have questions about this article or rvltr, or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaud{at}rvltr.studio.

Truth Is Golden ep. 208 - Para-Architecture w/ Nic Granleese

Image courtesy of Nic Granleese

Aussie architect and internet entrepreneur Nic Granleese, did his interview with us during his last visit in Toronto. He talked about his shoeless upbringing in rural Australia and how during a sabbatical early on in his career, he decided to hop on his motorcycle, quit architecture and become a photographer. Subsequently, his path led him to create bowerbird, a growing online platform that links architects with publications. Listen in to hear Nic speak about his path.

A vision for the future of architecture?

~ 4 minutes read

In the countless business-oriented books that one can find, there is a trend in recent years of books discussing the core of a successful enterprise. Heavily rooted in empathy, sometimes explicitly, sometimes not, it makes empathetic interpersonal relationships the center of attention. Heck, Entire businesses are created around developing empathy-based company cultures and leadership.

There are many stories of business leaders and creatives who created businesses (and failed many, many times while doing it) that were centered on providing satisfaction to their stakeholders in one form of another. There are books focused on teaching us to be better listeners, claiming that in this culture of telling, listening is a rare skill that can lead to great outcomes when wielded properly.

Over the last few years, while continuously educating myself on the matter, in order to understand empathy better and more importantly, why it has become such an integral part of the business thinking zeitgeist, I integrated some of these lessons in my own work. This led to developing services helping architects to develop better cultures and communication strategies.

What is empathy anyway? The dictionary definition is as follows:

“The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.”

It’s when someone tells you the details of a creepy story and you get the heebie-jeebies because you can picture yourself in that predicament. It’s when you become sad because your friend lost a loved one and you remember your own similar experience from a few years ago. It’s when someone tells you about skydiving out a flying plane and you get a rush of adrenaline just imagining what it would feel like.

You may say “OK empathy is great, but what’s your point?” Empathy is important because by gaining a deeper understanding of another’s circumstances helps us understand any given situation better. Combined with the outsider’s perspective, we are now equipped to help others overcome seemingly intractable problems, by having the ability to look past the blinders, yet understand their position at the same time, in other words effectively putting ourselves in their proverbial shoes.

The epiphany

On this journey to learn more about empathy and relationships, I slowly came to the conclusion that the architecture and design industry was in dire need of such help. In the course of my work, I get to interact with many architects and designers and invariably end up looking at their communications and marketing at one point or another. What became painfully evident to me is that there is a trend in the industry for incredibly uniform communications. In other words, architects, by and large, all convey the same message. You can go to any of their websites and you’ll find very similar descriptions of their companies, culture and work.

This lack of distinction in the way firms communicate leads to a general perception that architects are a commodity and therefore interchangeable. While this is also true in many other industries and conversely, one can find designers out there who stand out and buck the trend, the architecture industry is incredibly uniform in that sense. I believe that this is due to a couple of reasons:

1. Architecture schools don’t teach critical business skills: Marketing, communications, business management, sales and HR among others are painfully absent from architecture curriculums, or an afterthought at best. The heavy emphasis on design and technical knowledge creates amazing designers but largely ill-equipped business leaders.

2. Architects are generalists: Architects are trained to be generalists and often try to do everything. I think the future of the business lies in hyper-specialization. Instead of competing with a virtually infinite numbers of generalist firms, there is value in picking a niche and becoming the best at that very thing, competing with few or better yet, no firms at all. It may seem scary and limiting, but is in reality liberating because it cuts out a bunch of distracting activities and focuses a firm on one, narrow area of expertise.

Equipped with that knowledge and seeing the opportunity to change the way architects communicate in order to change the public’s perception of the value of architecture (#architecturematters) we are helping clients develop their culture, visual communications and marketing strategy.

Stay tuned for next week’s follow-up article on how we went about doing this.

What do you think stands to be improved in the architectural field?

Timing your visual communications to run a better business

~ 4.5 minutes read

In the typical cycles of business, we are now fully in the 100-day sprint, the roughly 100-day period between now and the holidays where businesses are the most productive. People are coming back refreshed from vacation, kids are back in school and summer is gone, so there is no more excuses to play hooky and go hide at the cottage. Lake water is too cold anyway. That is, until the end of the year, before people take off again for the holidays to go skiing in Gstaad.

In the realm of visual communications and specifically architectural photography, not only we are subject to business cycles as described above, but even more so to seasonal conditions. That translates into a shooting season - without guns -  that extends from roughly May to November, coinciding with vegetation being in a suitable state and the weather being cooperative to allow for good photographs of your buildings and spaces. In that timespan we get all kinds of colours and textures, from the vivid bright greens and flower blooms of spring to the colourful fall season, without forgetting the deep greens of the mature, midsummer vegetation.

When you superimpose the seasons with the traditional business cycles, it looks something like this: post-christmas coma and hibernation from January to May, spring awakening in May-June, Summer slump (a.k.a. Spending summer at the cottage) in July-August and 100-day sprint from September to Christmas time a.k.a. “Shit! I need to wrap up my projects” period.

Photography seasons

Why should I care?

We are in the last 50 or so days of good, predictable weather and decent vegetation before we are stuck with cold, shitty weather for the following 6 months which makes architectural photography quasi-impossible. Some projects are suitable to be photographed in winter, but these are the exception to the rule. Timing a project with a snowfall is also extremely challenging as winter snow tends to turn into slush in the city after a day or two and believe me when I say you don’t want to shoot in those conditions. If you’re an interior designer you might think “Haha, nice try, but this doesn’t apply to me!” as you’re not subject to weather.

While you’d be correct in thinking so from a technical and logistical perspective, let’s not forget the dreaded award season, from post-christmas to the early summer, where most award submissions are due. Marketing professionals spend most of that time working on submissions, on top of the million other things they usually have to do like managing social media, RFPs, etc. Based on my experience, most of them do not want to deal with managing photoshoots on top of that.

Ok, so all of this is self-serving, but how does it apply to me?

I’m glad you asked. Well, taking into consideration all of the above, what that means to you, is that by and large, you are left with 60 days (90 for interior design projects) to plan, execute and complete your photography projects before everyone in your office switches to holiday mode and slows down to a crawl for about a month, spending more time thinking about that vacation in Gstaad or the dreaded presents they need to get for their incredibly hard to please in-laws.

Considering that it takes easily 3-6 weeks to plan, prepare for and execute a shoot, there isn’t a lot of time left to get that accomplished. With professional pictures in hand before the the season’s end, you will be able to do the following:

• Promote your latest 2018 projects to prospects with the goal to sign new clients, and keep feeding new prospects in your pipeline.

• Have your images ready for your winter slump, when your marketing people will want to have them handy for the 10 million + 2019 award submissions they’re going to prepare. Believe you me, they will thank you.

• Wrap up the current year with completed projects, which should bring a sense of accomplishment to your practice and boost morale before the seasonal affective disorder sets in. Happy employees = productive employees.

• Take advantage of the winter slump to plan and prepare your 2019 press submissions and scour the newest editorial calendars, in order to time your media relations accordingly and increase your chances of being published, not to mention that beautiful photographs will help you in the matter.

All of the above, accomplishes one thing: it makes your practice more efficient and more effective on many fronts. Which results in less time spent scrambling to get something done at the last minute, more time to do other important business things (or more time for yourself) as well as a long-term increase in your profitability because you now run a lean, mean business development machine.

After all, who wouldn’t like more time and increased profits?

If you have questions about this article or rvltr, or want to book your fall 2018 shoot, you can reach us at hello@rvltr.studio.

Community Leadership Lessons From An Entrepreneurial Artist

The 2018 Womxn Paint collective

~ 7 Minute read.

In the ongoing raging debate about Toronto’s laneways and what to make of them, no one seems to be able to generate a consensus as to what should be allowed, prohibited and the amount of density that’s reasonable. I have my own opinions on the matter but that’s for another writing.

Working quietly in the background is Womxn Paint, an organization empowering women artists to express themselves through their art. Womxn Paint organizes a yearly jam, now in its second year, to transform a carefully selected downtown alleway into an outdoor art gallery, while making a big celebration out of it.

Beyond the celebratory aspect, it also creates a platform for the artists stories to be heard and raises the awareness of the potential for laneways to be become animated public spaces (more on that later). Headed by our friend, the indefatigable Bareket, Womxn Paint is a celebration of art and a demonstration of how community leadership can bring positive change with nothing more than cans of paint and an unwavering drive. Bareket is known around Toronto for her murals and you will have no doubt seen her “Smile” traffic signal control boxes around the city.
 

@bkez and Chloe the mural dog.

Entrepreneurial Skills.

This community enterprise requires serious relationship and entrepreneurial skills, showing us that being an artist, is not just about producing art that gets people excited, and although that’s important, one has to get that art in front of the right eyeballs for it to have an impact. In other words, talent alone does not make a successful artist.

You may have guessed where I’m going with this? Yes, you’re right, this applies to architects too! The most visible ones are not always the most talented ones, but those who have one way or another developed solid business savvy. More often than not, their awesome tactical and operational skills were not learned in school, but elsewhere. It goes to show that soft skills are just as important as acquired technical knowledge to make any enterprise successful, particularly design businesses.

Say what you want about Bareket’s ability to produce beautiful art with a positive message, it’s her communications, relationships and permanent positive attitude, as well as her ability to mobilize an army of other artists that makes her laneway painting events possible.
 

Let’s not forget about the purpose behind it all.

What makes her successful in bringing all of this together? I’m going to go out on a limb and identify the following key aspects of her success:

1. The organization has a clear purpose, that makes it easy for like-minded people to get behind it.

2. The whole project is a collaboration with different entities, both institutional and private working towards a common goal and that goal isn’t “let’s paint pretty murals”. It forces organizations like StART, Womxn Paint (and even rvltr!) and many others, to collaborate with each other in support of that purpose. Without it, it would just be a bunch of people painting murals in an alleyway.

3. Her event is inspiring and community driven.

4. She’s a strategic communicator thanks to her past experiences in marketing and PR and knows how to garner attention quickly and effectively.

5. Did we mention that this whole endeavour culminates in a big party, where the public is invited to take over a laneway for a day and enjoy the art as it’s being painted on walls and garage doors? The warm embrace of the community, both the local residents and owners of the alleyway who have welcomed Womxn Paint in their literal backyard as well as the general public, makes it very difficult to dislike as it is inclusive of just about anyone who wants to participate.

To me, #1 is the key to everything else, without it, it would be a lot harder to get support from all the various stakeholders and would end up having competing interests fighting for limited resources and each trying to pull the project in a different direction.

Womxn Paint’s clear purpose short-circuits all of that and serves as a reminder for everybody involved that the end result is meant to be greater than the sum of it parts (also the topic of an upcoming webinar of ours). Which leads me to my next point.
 

Collaboration vs. Competition

All these talented artists could be vying for the same rare and valuable mural real estate, each competing for a piece of the same pie. Womxn Paint takes the opposite approach, where they grow the pie itself, allowing a bigger piece for each artist. They do so by creating events and culturally relevant art that people actually want to see, instead of single painted pieces by individual artists. Fittingly, this year’s theme is “Uplifting each other”, underlining the importance of the event in creating a space where the artists can support one another as they’re building their respective careers.

And that’s the basis of creating value, as the total value of the project is much greater than the sum of its parts. It does so by building and fostering a sense of community around a topic that these people are passionate about.

I will sound like a broken record, but designers have a lot to learn from this. Instead of competing for the same pie, there are things that can be done to raise the way we value design as a society. Toon Dreesen, Principal at Architects DCA is a tireless advocate for #architecturematters and design as a way to bring about positive change in society. A lot of what he bring to the public discourse touches on how the higher upfront cost of good design can be offset by massive savings down the road in the way buildings are operated and maintained. Value engineering has a tendency to save costs upfront and defer them to future generations.

If a vocal and intransigent minority of architects, following Taleb’s example of the dictatorship of vocal minorities banded together with the likes of Toon, it wouldn’t be long until the changes we are seeking would come into effect. Alas, the industry is very siloed with people who are friendly-ish with each other, but still compete for all the same jobs at the micro level and then complain that their pricing structure is a race to the bottom, without looking at the state of the industry at the macro level.

Dreesen argues that if design and architecture were more valued as a society, then there would be more money spent on good design, because there would be an underlying tacit understanding of its intrinsic value. There are countless examples out there of markets that were created virtually overnight simply by finding new and innovative ways to demonstrate the value of a product or service (check out Terry O’Reilly’s podcast for that, he tells these stories better than I ever will).

The million dollar question is: What can architects do today, to raise the cultural awareness of the value of good design the same way Womxn Paint is doing for mural artists?

One final thought.

Art is a powerful tool for transformation. It has the amazing ability to draw us out of our day-to-day routine and send powerful messages, whether it’s mesmerizing visuals that get you to zone out and create your own universe in your head; or in the case of Womxn Paint, the activation of an underutilised and drab laneway, turning it into an open-air art gallery, bringing people together. Until the condos start sprouting up that is. Art is often relegated to the “nice-to-have” category, but I believe that what’s happening with Womxn Paint shows us that perhaps we have our priority backwards. Creativity and play should be encouraged, fostered and celebrated every day.
 

If you liked this or think you have an answer to the question above, please share with a friend and let us know your thoughts in the comments!

{Insert flight pun here} Let your projects soar with aerial photography.

When I hear the words aerial photography, it evokes a different perspective, looking at the world through a bird’s eyes. Since we humans, are so accustomed to looking at things from the ground level, which means looking up at the city; having access to this view from above, gives us the ability to appreciate the urban environment from an unusual perspective. A different point of view which makes us appreciate the amazing setting we’re a part of. I personally marvel at the level of human achievement every time I get a chance to look down at the city, as it suddenly comes into focus.

With the advent of consumer-level drones, aerial visualization & photography has become a bit of an ubiquitous commodity, but it has not completely superseded traditional aerial shots from aircrafts, if only for regulatory reasons that make flying a drone in the city both complex and a huge liability (drones also have the bad habit of being very prone to randomly crashing, speaking from experience). That means that to shoot anything from the air in the city, there is not yet a good substitute for planes and choppers.

This is why rvltr partnering with our dear friend and veteran aerial photographer Brett Price(linkedin) to offer you his expertise and knowledge of shooting from the air, combined with our knowledge of the city and its surroundings. Over the course of the first 2 weeks of September, Brett and rvltr will be available to shoot all over the GTA and beyond.

If you had projects under consideration for some yummy aerial photography, now is the time to act and book Brett + rvltr here. Spots are limited and going fast!

Instagram @brettprice / @revelateur_to

The fine print: Each location is shot to your specifications (Close ups, or to show property in relation to amenities etc). If you are interested, book us here, or have any questions please contact us, with the address of the property you wish to have photographed along with roof colour, and size of property. We will get back to you promptly to discuss the details of your project and come up with an appropriate scope of work and budget, based on your needs.

A guide to getting published for architects, part I - The traditional way.

Image credit.

How is it going to help me achieve my goals?

We will assume for the sake of this article, that you’ve already established, as a part of a larger business development strategy, that getting your work published is something you actively want to do. You already understand the value and simply want to go ahead with it.

While you could be a Generic Gerald - more on that later - and start pitching your projects to publications right away, it’s a good idea to sit down and think about your business objectives and how getting published with help you achieve those.

Strategy, strategy, strategy.

This is where strategic planning comes in. You will want to identify your business objectives and where you would like to grow. For example, if you have a residential practice and get plenty of good residential work, but you would like to grow your institutional portfolio, it may make sense to emphasize the institutional work and try to get published in that area, even though you’ll still want to get your best residential work out there to maintain that side of your practice.

This is where the projects to be promoted are discussed and you can start to form an idea of how you’re going to go about this. We are looking at long term goals, so really try to think about your practice in 5 or 10 years. Whether that vision may change or not, does not matter at this point.

Based on these business objectives, you can put together a list of completed projects in order of priority. This will form the basis of your publishing endeavour.

Did I say anything about strategy?

This is where you need to be bold and brave with your goals. The more off-beat and unexpected, the more likely you are to attract attention. It can be a scary proposition, but it’s a necessary one. This is where you have an opportunity to shine and express an opinion, something unique to yourself, that represents you and your company.

Being bold is a valid strategy. Heck, in my opinion, it’s the only way to consistently attract attention. The most successful architectural practices are the ones that find a way to stand out. That doesn’t mean that they mindlessly jump around like an over-excited child high on sugar. It’s more about speaking to the audience’s interests and desires and that may look very different for each practice.

Choosing the right hook.

Now that you have a strategy and know which projects you want to promote, it’s time to find the right hook, a.k.a. the angle of your story. You will want to tap into what makes your company unique. If you already know this and have an established company culture and set of values, this should be pretty straightforward. If this is not clear, you may want to spend some time figuring that out.

Then, onto the project. What is unique about it? It is a great space? Does it reflect the personality of the users? Is it particularly well suited for a specific use? Does it have a unique story? You want to reflect on the project and really nail down what its unique attributes are. Many publications, though not all, are interested in the way the space is lived in and will want to have access to users on the record as part of the story they will write. Not only it’s a good idea to include that in your pitch, but you may want to go a step further and prep your clients by letting them know that you want to get published and get their consent to be contacted by the media should they bite, as getting the users on record is a very common condition for publications, and a deal breaker if they can’t.

Picking the publications that fit with your strategy and angle.

Most editors like to be fed with stories that not only fit their editorial stance (that’s where you need to do your research and find out more about them) but also are compelling enough and well put together so that they can determine right away if that’s a possible fit before they spend any more time on your submission. I’ve heard first hand from editors that they get hundreds if not thousands of submissions and helping them sift through them quicker is very valuable to them and will give you brownie points with regards to increasing your chances of getting published.

If you’ve managed to get past the first line of defense, a succinct, yet thoughtful and most importantly, well put together submission will also play in your favour. Magazines get many submissions following the traditional press release format, which tends to focus on the project itself and the designer, generally following this formula: “Our project is awesome + we’re awesome, so please publish us”. Don’t be a Generic Gerald and do what everybody else is doing. The biggest missed opportunities when submitting projects for publication is when firms fail to speak more in-depth to their projects and how they function, enabling their users to live better lives and instead focus on the aesthetics.

How to be a winner

Being published is never guaranteed, as we will always be subjects to the unfathomable whims of editors and journalists. However, if you thoughtfully spend the time to strategize, come up with a catchy hook and be deliberate about the publications you choose to target, you will likely start seeing publications pick-up your stories more and more.

Keep in mind that this is a long game, and the more you can establish trusting relationships with media outlets, the less resistance you will find on your path to greatness and lack of success early on should not deter you from continuing as you will get better at it over time. Publications will start recognizing your name and give your submissions more attention. Like real life relationships, this takes effort to create and maintain.

Once you’ve submitted your project, the work doesn’t stop here. As everybody else is, editors and journalists are busy people. While it’s a common excuse around these parts to not give someone the time of day, we have to put ourselves in their shoes for a minute and imagine how many hundreds of submissions they have to go through for each and every issue. Sometimes, an otherwise perfectly suited submission will slip through the cracks just because.

Instead of giving up by assuming that since no one responded to your submission, they’re not interested, it is critical to pick up the phone and call that editor (easier to do if a pre-existing relationship exists) or even just send a follow-up email asking for an answer and/or feedback. It is not rare for a follow-up to lead to a yes, so this is low-cost, near effortless opportunity to increase your chances of being published. And don’t forget to ask for feedback on why they didn’t see a fit anytime you get a chance, it will help you improve both the quality of your submissions and strategically target them to the right media.

When it comes to doing this type of work, my personal mantra is “I’m not giving up until they either say, yes, no or tell me they never want to talk to me again”. If you behave like a polite, civilized human, the latter will be very rare. Most people value persistence so don’t be afraid to follow-up multiple times.

This traditional way of getting published, is still effective, albeit very time-consuming. I believe it is worth investing into if you can afford it, as paper-based publications are still very much alive and carry a lot more weight in terms of brand image. Telling someone you’ve been published in Architectural Record is way more prestigious than telling them you’ve been published on ArchDaily and for a good reason. Online publications have a place in your marketing efforts and for different reasons, but that’s for another article.

Truth Is Golden 202 - We're All Going To Die

In episode 2 of our second season, Stefan Hunt, recounted his -short- life story, from a typical western childhood in New South Wales, Australia, to his early foray into film making, crossing the US at 18 with no money, a bieber haircut and a drive to surf all 48 states, including the 20+ landlocked ones. His first film, self-described as “cringeworthy”, got him some attention and eventually led him to become the multi-talented professional filmmaker, artist and storyteller he is today; all the while continuing on his literally off the beaten path journey. Listen in to hear more about how one can be a highly creative, decent and compassionate human being at the same time.

Giaimo x Rvltr: lessons from an instagram takeover

In our quest to find new ways to tell captivating stories, we at rvltr constantly like to experiment on a small scale, and are particularly fond of Instagram’s potential to weave written stories with imagery.

Instagram takeovers have been around for a while, but we had yet to see a well-designed takeover designed around a central theme, telling a story over a given duration. As an experiment, we thought that one of our clients could take over our account for a few days to connect them with our audience and tell such a story.

Thinking about who would be a good fit for us, we determined that our good friends at Giaimo, a young Toronto-based architecture firm with whom we share a lot of values, would be a perfect fit. They were fairly new to Instagram and did not have an established publishing strategy, so there was potential for a big upside and virtually no downside for them.

We approached Giaimo with the idea, and they agreed without hesitation. We then engineered with them a friendly takeover of our Instagram account. Over the course of a week, they shared with our audience who they are, what makes them unique and imparted their approach to design in order to make our audience more familiar with their work.

Because we believe in transparency and honesty, we gave them the keys to our account and were purposely not involved in the day-to-day running of the account over the course of that week. After initially establishing some basic parameters regarding the posts format and general content, Giaimo came up with a week-long story arc, centered around each one of their employees, weaved into the idea of scales, from the house to the nation. Each employee was in charge for a specific day and a specific scale.

Visual overview of takeover: each line represents a day/theme, with one team member in charge for the day. Day 6 was the only exception, representing the firm's philosophy as a whole.

Here’s how it unfolded:

• Day 0 was the hand-off and introduction of the take-over. This was intended to ease into the takeover and signal to our audience that something special was happening that week
• Days 1-5, each employee was responsible for the account that day. They each prepared 2-4 posts showcasing some of their ideas, personal beliefs of projects they were working on, relating to the idea of scales: house, building, street, district and city.
• Day 6 was tying it all together by presenting their concept of “AS FOUND DOMINO” which they showcased through imagery of concepts they came up with, tying it all together around the idea of working at the scale of the nation.
• Day 7 was a video recap and wrap-up of the takeover. 

Over the course of that week, they posted 25 posts, both video and images integrated with captions that told a brief story of the idea conveyed through the imagery and forming a part of the whole week-long story arc. This made for a revealing series of post that took our respective audiences on a personal journey with Giaimo, in their office and their minds. They took to heart our initial idea to be authentic and transparent in the way they portrayed themselves, so that people would develop a more personal connection with the firm.

Since it was a new endeavour for both of us, we went into this with an open mind. From Giaimo’s perspective, it was a massive success, not only from a numbers perspective (more on that below), but also because they’ve learned a great deal about themselves and the way they appear to their small, but growing audience. All the while we kept an eye on Giaimo’s account statistics, in order to gauge the effect that a carefully curated posting strategy could have on their account.

Joey Giaimo, the firm’s founder and principal has this to say about the experience:

“For a relatively new Instagram startup, this takeover was a rare opportunity to connect with a larger and affiliated design community, to present not only our material but also revelateur's work from the perspective of our architectural practice. The visual distinction of Instagram combined with revelateur's photographs throughout the posts made the takeover a compatible one, with a seamless transition.

We are just past our practice's 2 year mark, and the takeover came at a time when we could compile a substantial amount of work to date and reflect on the practice's output. It was also an opportune time to be self-critical and determine if our ideas and approach to architecture were translated into the built works and the continued design process.”

In our minds, it was a tremendous success since there was a significant increase in engagement on our respective accounts throughout the week:

On Giaimo’s (@giaimo.arch) account:

1. They started the week with 119 followers and ended it with 178, a 66% percent increase, compared to a growth from 0 to 119 followers in 9 months since october 2016.

2. Over the course of that week, they went from 109 impressions (numbers of times any of their posts were seen) to 6728, a 6172% increase.

3. Their reach (number of unique account views) went from 20 to 546, a 2730% increase.

On Revelateur’s (@revelateur_to) account:

1. We started the week with slightly over 8400 followers and ended it with about 25 fewer followers, a 0.25% decrease.

2. We went from 8508 impressions to 36473, a 428% increase.

3. Our reach went from 1941 to 3493, a 225% increase.

If we strictly look at the numbers, there was clear benefits for our respective companies in doing this takeover. The stupendous engagement that Giaimo has seen has to be tempered by the fact they started with a small following so a significant boost in postings frequency and quality would bring about tremendous growth, but it is amazing to see how much organic growth can be generated with a defined strategy. For rvltr, the level of engagement was really the important metric and with our more mature account and audience, that’s really what we are focusing on, as we try to leverage our ability to reach to 8000+ people by capturing their attention.

Beyond the numbers, this takeover showed that a sustained posting strategy will yield results and that posting roughly 4 times as many posts as we would in a typical week has some value to it. What both Giaimo and ourselves realized is that it is a lot of work to put together and we particularly wanted to thank Giaimo for taking this to heart and go all the way, despite the amount of work and coordination that this represented for them. We will both go back to our normal instagram duties with a renewed sense of pride in the work we do. We were certainly inspired to up our game and start coming up with new ways of telling stories. We hope you’ll enjoy them!

Hambly House on the cover of Canadian Architect

Cities such as Hamilton are rapidly growing and being designed to accommodate the sheer influx of people moving to the downtown and surrounding areas. This is a reversal of the strategy of the 1950's when the United States and Canada preferred to build cities around highways to promote easier travel and automobile use. Thus, today the surrounding areas of Toronto (Hamilton, ON in this case) are becoming more architecturally sound, interesting and diversifying the neighborhoods. The Hambly House by DPAI and Toms + McNally featured on the cover of Canadian Architect this month is a prime example of bridging the gap between old and new. Further reading HERE!

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Hambly House at dusk

Coach house photographs on Dwell

Our pictures from the coach house project, by Post Architecture / Gloria Apostolou, was recently featured on Dwell's website.

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Living room

Read on full article: "Smart Solution Reimagines an Awkward Toronto Lot" 

“Toronto Engaging Over Art”

Press Contact Info : arnaud marthouret | revelateur studio toronto | t: 647-996-9220 | hello@revelateur-studio.com

For immediate release.

“TAXONOMIES”

featuring Ultradistancia by Federico Winer and  Architectural Inoculation and Attracted Opposites by Arnaud Marthouret.

Toronto – 18 March 2016 – “TAXONOMIES” featuring Ultradistancia, Architectural Inoculation and Attracted Opposites was a massive success. The dynamic playful show lived up to expectations providing a perspective centered on global human placement, as well as a look at how we as a species interact with the surrounding environment; built or natural. This is not a critique or praise of human activity, but rather a starting point for discussion for the viewers. For them to come to conclude their own perspectives on today’s times, and our interactions with the world at three different scales: Macro, Meso and Micro.

“…Opening night, over 200 art lovers and collectors came to see “TAXOMOMIES” and Ultradistancia… It helps you to understand that your art can reach all audiences, such as the fantastically curious and educated Toronto scene,” says Federico Winer, (macro + Ultradistancia). Further, Federico remarks, “… the show was a perfect collaboration between artists who are devoted to space, though we see the way we see the earth in diffferent ways, we can appreciate this is the way we both perceive earth and space.

In short, “TAXONOMIES” is Arnaud Marthouret and Federico Winer “brainchild” after meeting 6 months ago via Arnaud reading an article about Ultradistancia. Feeling inspired to contact Federico -- they have been on a roll ever since. The two began discussing how to collaborate on a show, found a gallery that fit their style and built a small international team to make it happen.

“… The show itself is a culmination of months of work, with a great team, which made it successful… and as my first professional art show, I look forward to doing many more. I truly enjoy discussing how blending art and architecture, specifically as the line between them grows thinner and thinner -- especially given my day job as an architectural photographer -- is extremely exciting for me...” says Arnaud Marthouret, (meso + micro/Architectural Inoculation + Attracted Opposites)

ONLYONEGALLERY was an extraordinary space for the event. The artwork, being architectural and environmentally focused was very complimentary to the 3,000sf raw gallery space. Large walls, tall ceilings and multiple levels gave viewers opportunity to see art at all scales: Macro, Meso and Micro.

Gallery owner, Cais Mukhayesh said, “… “TAXONOMIES” featuring Ultradistancia, Architectural Inoculation and Attracted Opposites was a huge success with serious continued interest… people have returned to the gallery daily since the opening.” He also stated, “the show was an amazing time, people were super pleased with the artwork, and there was a constant flow of people over the course of 6 hours… what more can you ask for!” Cais also mentioned, “ONLYONEGALLERY goes above and beyond to bring new and upcoming artists and concepts to light. Providing a platform for showing new works, potential collaboration with other artists (as well as what I would call an almost “mentorship” by Cais); truly a unique opportunity for up and comers.

“TAXONOMIES” featuring Ultradistancia, Architectural Inoculation and Attracted Opposites is up through March 26, 2016 at ONLYONEGALLERY (located at 5 Brock Ave. Toronto, Ontartio, M6K 2K6). Their hours are Sunday through Tuesday by appointment only (cais@onlyonegallery.com); Wednesday through Friday 3:00pm to 7:00pm; and Saturday 12pm to 5pm. Make sure to call ahead, the artists love to hang out at the gallery!

For professional photographs from the show visit the ONLYONEGALLERY Facebook page HERE!

About the Artists + Gallery

Federico Winer

Federico Winer, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a multi-faceted artist, photographer producer, a habitual traveler and super friendly, colleague and collaborator. With his background in Political Science, Philosophy, Architecture and the arts, it was natural for Federico to become a professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires, where he is currently teaching. He is also the founding member of the Experimental Group of Experimental Thought Soy Cuyano, with several academic and art performances in Argentina and Europe.

For information visit Ultradistancia or federicowiner.com

Arnaud Marthouret

Born in Grenoble, France, Arnaud Marthouret, founding partner and lead photographer of revelateur studio is a trained architect and architectural photographer. As an inherently creative person, he brings an imaginative perspective that often categorizes him as quirky artist but that only feed his insatiable curiosity and thirst for the new and unusual. These traits he cherishes and nurtures to this day, as they allow him to understand the world with a different attitude.

revelateur studio (Arnaud Marthouret)

revelateur studio brings together many curiosities uniting slightly schizophrenic yet opposite lifestyles: hip cosmopolitan urbanite vs. outdoorsy nature lover. The studio’s work goes the extra mile to ensure integrity for each building, photographically, which inspires and deserves the best photographic representation. revelateur studio works with a team of the highest level photographers, photography assistants, PR professionals, stylists, film-makers, graphic designers, coaches and mentors.

For information visit www.revelateur-studio.com

ONLYONEGALLERY (OOG) was created in December 2011 as a limitless experiment in concept space. OOG is about collaborating, creating, and demonstrating something special - a live physical experience. OOG is a multidisciplinary studio and gallery that hosts and produces individual and group exhibits. OOG is proud to support emerging and established artists alike, to present a roster of ambitious exhibitions, and to act as a creative hub where ideas come to life. In July of 2015 OOG relocated to a new 3000sq ft. gallery space in the heart of Parkdale, Toronto.

Cais Mukhayesh

Cais Mukhayesh is the owner, director and curator at ONLYONEGALLERY located in Toronto, Canada. Since 2011 he has worked intensively with both local and international artists, photographers, and musicians; producing over 30 art shows, exhibitions, and events showcasing primarily urban contemporary art, music and culture. Cais has worked on many successful creative partnerships with companies such as Absolut Vodka, Jameson Whiskey, Havana Club, Molson-Coors, Steamwhistle Breweries, Iishiko Japan, Hennessey and Saks 5th Avenue; as well as established an impressive roster of talented artists.

For information visit www.onlyonegallery.com

Introducing TAXONOMIES, a photography art show in Toronto.

For immediate release

TAXONOMIES photography show (#taxonomiesoog)

featuring

Ultradistancia by Federico Winer

Architectural Inoculation + Attracted Opposites by Arnaud Marthouret, in collaboration with Reza Aliabadi and Melissa Tung

27 February 2016 -- The much anticipated gallery show opening at ONLYONEGALLERY will have its grand opening event on March 10th, 2016 starting at 6:00pm, while the show will continue to run through March 26, 2016. “TAXONOMIES” is a dynamic yet playful perspective centered on global human placement, as well as a look at how we as species interact with the surrounding environment; built or natural. This is not a critique or praise of human activity, but rather, a current snapshot of today’s times, showing our interaction with the world at three different scales: Macro, Meso and Micro.

Ultradistancia, Macro, is a global perspective using a simple and free visual apparatus – Google Earth – for use in abstract image manipulation. The abstractions play with color, texture and shape to a surreal degree. The objective being to understand how humans, as a genus, forget to look with our eyes and habitually perceive the world through technology.

Architectural Inoculation, Meso, with Reza Aliabadi, is photographic documentation showing injective designs residential designs into post-war era residential Toronto neighbourhoods. These middle-class unapologetic, sometimes disruptive, architectural customizations, which have become a phenomenon in recent years, many times disrupt their surroundings. The boldly truthful photos turned out - authentic, honest and beautiful - true to the architecture. Here, the subject isn’t portrayed as a stand-alone piece of art or architecture but rather as object trying to integrated within its urban fabric.

Attracted Opposites, Micro, is a significantly playful collaboration where “ownership of public urban spaces” was the overall objective. Together, Arnaud and Melissa came up with creative ways to explore and take over stylish, sophisticated public parks within Toronto to openly practice yoga poses. This project is about being temporary. Appropriating spaces for uses they are not intended for. It is about transporting vitality and seduction to sometimes hard, cold spaces, presenting final images that would otherwise be void of such beauty.

ADDITIONAL EVENT INFORMATION ON FACEBOOK.

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About the artists:

Federico Winer. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a multi-faceted artist, photographer producer, a habitual traveler and super friendly collaborator. With his background in Political Science, Philosophy, Architecture and the arts, it was natural for Federico to become a professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires, where he is currently teaching. He is also the founding member of the Experimental Group of Experimental Thought Soy Cuyano, with several academic and art performances in Argentina and Europe.

Arnaud Marthouret. Born in Grenoble, France, Arnaud, founding partner and lead photographer of revelateur studio is a trained architect and architectural photographer. As an inherently creative person, he brings an imaginative perspective that often categorizes him as quirky artist but that only feed his insatiable curiosity and thirst for the new and unusual. These traits he cherishes and nurtures to this day, as they allow him to understand the world with a different attitude.

TAXONOMIES Opening Night brought to you by our wonderful and generous SPONSORS:

Absolut Vodka - Liquor

TPH - Production/Printing

South Street Boatbuilders / Tim Richards - Furniture

Dr. Michel Marthouret - Financial Backer

Victory Social Club / Andres Landau - Logistics

RZLBD Atelier - Collaborator / Supporter

Melissa Tung Yoga - Collaborator / Supporter

About the organizers:

ONLYONEGALLERY (OOG) was created in December 2011 as a limitless experiment in concept space. OOG is about collaborating, creating, and demonstrating something special - a live physical experience. OOG is a multidisciplinary studio and gallery that hosts and produces individual and group exhibits. OOG is proud to support emerging and established artists alike, to present a roster of ambitious exhibitions, and to act as a creative hub where ideas come to life. In July of 2015 OOG relocated to a new 3000sq ft. gallery space in the heart of Parkdale, Toronto. For more information visit www.onlyonegallery.com

Cais Mukhayesh. Owner, director and curator at ONLYONEGALLERY located in Toronto, Canada. Since 2011 he has worked intensively with both local and international artists, photographers, and musicians; producing over 30 art shows, exhibitions, and events showcasing primarily urban contemporary art, music and culture. Cais has worked on many successful creative partnerships with companies such as Absolut Vodka, Jameson Whiskey, Havana Club, Molson-Coors, Steamwhistle Breweries, Lishiko Japan, Hennessey and Saks 5th Avenue; as well as established an impressive roster of talented artists.

Revelateur studio (Arnaud Marthouret). Revelateur studio brings together many curiosities uniting slightly schizophrenic yet opposite lifestyles: hip cosmopolitan urbanite vs. outdoorsy nature lover. The studio’s work goes the extra mile to ensure integrity for each building, photographically, which inspires and deserves the best photographic representation. Revelateur studio works with a team of the highest level photographers, photography assistants, PR professionals, stylists, film-makers, graphic designers, coaches and mentors. For additional information visit www.revelateur-studio.com