Let me be the first to say that nothing replaces feeling tile or stone samples in person, nor seeing them applied to surfaces in new and inspirational ways. That’s why we’ll all travel to Coverings this April to get our fill of new textures and new ideas to take back to our clients and design projects.
So here’s the question: How will you pull together those new ideas into a presentation for new and existing clients? I’ve seen my fair share of moodboards or perhaps a collection of samples arranged carefully for a client’s visit to the design studio. Don’t get me wrong, those abstract representations of material selections have their place in the creative process. But are your clients able to take those limited snapshots and imagine them as they would look in their space? I mean really, really see your design vision by looking at a handful of samples arranged side-by-side?
Google SketchUp is the right tool both for fleshing our your design ideas, and for presenting them to your clients in a way they can easily understand and visualize. Unlike other popular 3D design tools, Google SketchUp is both inexpensive and easy-to-learn. More importantly, SketchUp is hands-down the best tool for visualizing materials together in the context of a real project and selling those ideas to your clients. Not only can you “sketch” your design ideas from scratch, but you can also browse through catalogs of real building products and materials to add to your drawings and enhance your design presentations.
I can tell you from first-hand experience that SketchUp is a tool that will change your entire business: You’ll design more efficiently, differentiate yourself from the competition and accelerate your client’s decision making process. Join me at Coverings 2012 on April 19th at 10:30AM for my session Selling Your Project to Customers Using Google SketchUp. For the uninitiated, I will introduce you to what’s possible with SketchUp and give you some key lessons to take home and integrate into your practice. And for those of you who already know SketchUp, I’ll introduce you to game-changing professional presentation and specification tools like LayOut, Product Connect and Shaderlight. In my humble opinion, it’s a session you won’t want to miss! Register for Coverings 2012 right now to reserve your spot.
this looks really interesting. i’d be interested to know easy ways for manufacturers to produce tools to help facilitate this
Amazing post. I was recently looking into buying rendering software.. ahem 20/20 but is has such a hefty price tag. We’ve been doing hand drawn kitchen and bathroom designs for quite some time now but it can lead to mistakes, and is time intensive. I’m glad I came across this post if nothing more than to do more research before buying. Thanks.
Eric: Manufacturers can work with companies like ours to produce their product catalogs in Google SketchUp format for easy download into designers’ projects. Here is a link to more information on our website: http://igloostudios.com/product-catalogs
Robert: There is a free version of Google SketchUp which is actually very powerful. Plus, it can work quite well within a hand-drawn workflow (ie, you can import your drawings into SketchUp and turn them into 3D drawings). If nothing else, you might give the free version of SketchUp a try – give it at least a couple of weeks of earnest effort – and if you don’t like it, you haven’t lost a big money investment.
Pingback: Selling tile and stone with Google SketchUp - Coverings Blog