Still Images

A still is the unit most projects are judged on. It goes into the brochure, the hoarding, the planning submission and the sales desk, and it is usually the first thing anyone outside the design team ever sees of a building. We treat it that way: every view is set up from the drawing set, not approximated, so what is rendered is what is consented and what will be built.

Work starts from whatever the project has — massing model, full Revit set, sketch elevations, a site survey. We rebuild what is needed for the camera and no more, because a model detailed far beyond the shot wastes days without changing the image. Where the design is still moving, we set up views that tolerate change, so a facade revision does not mean starting again.

Camera work is the part that decides whether an image sells. An eye-level view at the entry says something different from a three-quarter aerial, and a masterplan reviewer and a marketing director want different things from the same building. We propose views with a reason attached, and we would rather argue for a better angle than deliver a list of shots that all look alike.

Light is chosen for the building rather than for the render. A west-facing facade at golden hour is a cliche because it flatters everything; sometimes flat overcast is the honest choice for a submission, and sometimes dusk is right because the scheme is about a lit ground plane. We will tell you which we think it is.

Materials come from the specification where one exists. If the brief calls for a particular brick, a particular anodised finish, a particular timber, we source and match it rather than substituting something that reads similarly. On projects with a long review cycle this matters more than it sounds: committees notice when the render and the sample board disagree.

People and planting are placed to give scale and to show intended use, not to fill space. Density is a decision — a plaza rendered at festival crowding sets an expectation the finished square will not meet, and reviewers are quick to say so.

Delivery is whatever the channel needs. Print resolution for brochures and boards, sized crops for social and web, and layered files where your team wants to adjust text or colour in-house. Every image is delivered in the aspect ratios agreed at the outset rather than cropped down from one master afterwards.

Revisions are expected and scoped up front. Two rounds are typical for a single hero image; a large launch set works better with a review at grey-shade stage, before materials and light are committed, because that is where changes are cheap.