Thanks so much for this blog! I agree renderings are an excellent tool to help clients understand the vision. However, I, like others who commented, wonder what other techniques might work for clients who simply can’t pay that much for a drawing. In a room with a $10K budget for materials and design fees (in this economy we’re beginning to think those are great projects!) $2,500 for a drawing is not in the cards. Are there some less expensive tips or tools you can recommend for best expressing the design vision to the client?

Thanks,

Mona

I strongly believe in the power of renderings as a selling tool. I am curious about color…do you always do them in black and white and let the materials do the talking for the color application?

I must say though that I can very rarely get a client to agree on paying for them. They will forego them rather than pay…trusting me to give them what the 2D floor plan shows.

Do you have that experience for some or any clients? How do you actually convince them to pay for them? When are they mentioned in the entire process since you must know they will accept to pay for it before the presentation will be prepared?

Also, if they are done in-house, roughly how many hours does a single room view take to do? May I ask what you pay that person to do it vs. total cost to client? As a business owner I am curious about what it is fair to expect a rendering to cost me to produce in house and the hours it should reasonably take someone to do it. I am shopping for such an artist at the moment and could use something to compare with.

Also, for many projects, especially commercial, my first phase is the development of the design concept and a portion of the total project flat fee is paid when this is presented. Once approved, I will hunt for actual materials, accessories, etc. and will also move on to the technical drawings. I will not do the work of actually going out and looking for final specific materials and accessories and furniture until a general concept is approved and paid for. But from the look of this rendering, it seems that the majority of the elements were chosen and then included in the rendering. Could you please clarify how this process works for you in both residential and commercial projects? Does your method or process change?

Also curious as to the minimum size of project (a.k.a. budget) you will accept to work on. Do you ever do small consultations for just color or placement or a simple floor plan?? That is currently a large part of my business as people cut back. Anyone else have that experience?

Thank you so much.

Andrea Veron