What Investors Want
How to Convey the Vision of Your Design
When you’re working for an architecture firm, your sole focus is designing. But what happens when you decide to break out on your own and start your own architect firm?
Suddenly, you have to think about how to literally sell architectural design—as work just doesn’t find its way to your desk anymore.
Architecture project pitching now becomes this new journey that makes you feel that you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. As a previous architect for someone else’s firm, you may have never had to do project pitching.
Quite a stressful task—fortunately, it doesn’t have to be.
How can you make project pitching easier and place yourself in an extremely good position to get more investors interested in the vision of your architectural designs? Let’s discover exactly what investors are looking for in your project pitch and how you can captivate and win them with your architectural designs.
Words Alone Can’t Convey the Vision
We’ve all been there with our pitches or presentations—talking too much. Of course, a good pitch involves a lot of talking and you’ve got to paint a solid picture. But the investors are just sitting there with blank expressions, wondering why you’re telling them — rather than showing them.
Bridging that Knowledge Gap
Let’s face the facts here: many investors don’t understand the specifics of architectural design. They are simply entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and maybe even big tech firms that have never studied architectural design like you did. As a result, you’re going to find that bridging the gap requires a strategic (and simple) balance of showing and telling. If all you do is talk, you’re not showing your clients something touchable that they can latch onto and feel.
Selling your architectural services means putting your clients inside the building that’s in your head—and words alone can’t do that. Bombarding them with jargon won’t help either. In fact, scripts can make you sound very robotic.
Instead, use your talking skills to support your models and images.
You need key talking points and information to help you deliver your vision and creativity — and 3D architectural visualization is the best approach for modern architecture.
Pay Attention to Your Client’s Needs
Creativity in design is key to selling your architectural services. But it’s not the only thing to consider.
Investors want their buildings to offer practicality as well as aesthetics. Too much focus on the look (alone) shows that you haven’t any paid attention to what the client needs.
Take energy efficiency, as an example. Many clients prioritize this in today’s environment. To them, energy efficiency means:
- Lower ongoing costs
- Better public profile
And there’s no surprise that the Building Information Modeling (BIM) method has exploded in popularity—it focuses on sustainability. And sustainability is not just trending—it’s being adopted as a requirement among investors worldwide.
So, what do investors want? They’re looking for you—as the architect—to help them look sustainable and be sustainable through your designs.
Remember: pay close attention to your client’s outlines. Ask yourself:
- Does it have the required number of rooms?
- Do they have specific requests—in terms of lighting?
- What else must the building offer?
Any and everything that the client outlines should find its way into your pitch and design. Don’t simply sacrifice their need for practicality/realism for your own desire to show off your creativity alone.
Interior 3d visualization by Faraday 3D
Finding the Right Balance: Meeting Investors’ Needs While Promoting Your Creativity
That’s why 3D architectural visualization is a must! And in order to stay one step ahead of you’re competition with your architectural services, provide an emotional experience, and nail that next pitch or presentation, you must bring realism to their outlined needs through unyielding interior/exterior 3D images and renders.
The best 3D architectural studio has powerful tools and a solid workflow to help architect, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals leverage impactful 3D visualizations that:
- Gain faster buy-ins and approvals through realistic visualizations
- Know how to help your clients experience the design before its built
- Minimize change orders
- Reduce coordination issues
- Support documentation
- Automate construction
By now, you are starting to see why presenting investors with mere sketches and physical 3D models will never be enough for them to deeply experience the exterior and interior of the architectural vision and invest their money. So, let’s continue your project-pitching journey by discussing the meat of 3D visualizations: 3D exterior, interior, and all the details in between!
Modern Architecture: Realism, Exterior, Interior, and the Details that Evoke Feeling
Too often, investors are nervous about how the exterior and interior will look in the building—and how it will fit in its surroundings. Even your easily disassembled interior 3D physical models or sketches are not enough to consistently gain a “green light for approval” from investors. But you have the power to mitigate these concerns in your project pitch.
This is when 3D architectural renders become the star of the show.
Exterior that Exceeds
Through 3D architectural exterior renders, you’ll be able to integrate those surrounding structural concerns—and solutions— into your design and project pitch. You can properly convey the vision by using other buildings, nature, benches, and many other items to make the entire area appear more engaging and attractive.
Exceed their expectations and go “higher”: literally, win them from every angle. Stun the investor with a panoramic view! Choose the right 3D architectural visualization studio to help you generate an awesome realistic panoramic view of the building from any desired angle. Being able to see your building from any height they want can really help decrease (and resolve) the investor’s exterior concerns.
Interior that Invites
Since you have an entire building’s interior rendered at a time, you can take your investors on a virtual tour of the building — allowing them to feel a natural perspective and experience the emotion of walking through the rooms/hallways of your design.
Details that Delight
All eyes are on you—and your architectural designs. And you only get one chance to show them that your architectural designs are worth their money. 3D visualizations are the best way to go.
If you rely on physical models and sketches to illustrate fine details to tell your story, then expect to deliver an overcrowded, messy, and restricted experience for the investor—in addition to the extra time needed for you to modify and tweak designs.
Time is money! 3D architectural visualization affords you more time and a greater ability to evoke emotions from the design through added textures, colors, furniture, and perfect lighting effects—all the things that you can’t do perfectly through models and sketches.
In summary
Your models and 3D architectural visualizations are — indeed — the main attraction. When pitching or presenting to investors, all eyes are on you! And “you” also includes “your visualizations” and “your portfolio”. Investors want to be impressed, leverage an efficient AEC professional, and be confident in their investment. They want to know that you can deliver timely solutions.
Answering their questions during a project pitch is easy, but making changes is really hard—notably when you have access to limited resources and assets.
And that is why 3D architectural visualization is your savior.
You can’t afford to skimp on the benefits of 3D architectural visualization. Yes, having a physical prototype lends investors some confidence in your abilities as an architect or designer. However, it will be your cooperation and results with a 3D architectural visualization studio that ultimately:
- Draws the emotions of your clients
- Gains faster buy-ins and approvals through realistic visualizations
- Provides faster 3D render due to quantity/quality of equipment
- Helps translate how your ideas work in real life, and
- Boosts your digital portfolio for the overall future of your firm
Ready to learn more about how a 3D architectural visualization studio can help you overcome those challenges in the art of selling architectural services and upgrade your opportunities with investors? Well, we’re equally ready to learn more about you and your vision. Our 3D architectural visualization options are sure to help you maintain that same level of excitement and freedom of starting your own architecture firm. So, let’s connect! Contact Faraday 3D today and let’s schedule a one-on-one session.