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It’s a frustrating reality that you can be ecstatic about a potential project, but your prospective client just can’t picture the design intent. Such a conundrum might bring the necessary client-pro dialogue to a screeching halt—or worse, cause you to lose the project altogether. This is when visuals—be they hand drawings, computer-generated renderings, or mood boards—come into play. And now more than ever before, high-caliber visuals are no more than a mouse-click away—but does a photorealistic presentation work best? And if you outsource the renderings, is it worth the investment?
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If you find yourself wavering on this matter, take heart that you’re not alone: We spoke with several leading architects and interior designers on both sides of the fence and discovered that they, too, see the pros and cons in photorealistic renderings. Others still prefer the hand-drawn variety—read on to learn how they parse this practice for themselves.
Use the project timeline as a guide
If most of the group reached a consensus on anything, it’s that the project timeline is key in determining when it’s beneficial to use a specific type of rendering. “At the beginning of a project, I prefer hand renderings because they are, by nature, more generalized and gestural and allow the designer to present the conceptual idea of a space,” says David Mann, president of AD PRO Directory–listed firm MR Architecture + Decor. “Digital renderings are so detailed that they are best done after every individual aspect of a project has been specified.”
“There is something artful and malleable about a pen and marker drawing that clients respond to,” concurs fellow Directory member Dan Mazzarini, principal and creative director of BHDM Design. “Digital and photorealistic renderings don’t allow as much room for interpretation.”
Others, meanwhile, say that the use of hand-drawn visuals is also about giving clients ownership of their projects. Maria Martin, founder of interior design tablet app Design Appy, turns to sketches and quick visuals during the creative phase because “a sketch or hand drawing allows the client to feel a sense of collaboration and offer feedback to refine the next step. Presenting a photorealistic rendering too soon into a design process creates implied permanence, and the client is more likely to push back.”
That’s not to say a digitally generated image shouldn’t be introduced at all, however. Using photorealistic renderings to gently nudge clients can be a crucial step in the design process. “It makes the finished design exist for the client in a way that they can experience it, taking the client from ‘I don’t know, I can’t see it’ to a confident ‘yes.’”
Manage (great) expectations
The debate over whether expectations set by photorealistic renderings help or hurt a project still rages on. Designer Laurence Carr admits that digitally generated renderings “offer a visually captivating representation that brings a design to life in stunning detail. They can help clients feel more secure and engaged in the design process.” However, this comes with a warning: “Photorealistic renderings do tend to inadvertently set unrealistic expectations. Clients might expect an exact replica, so there’s always a risk of overselling or creating unattainable aspirations for the outcome.”
Interior designer and TV personality Kari Whitman of Kari Whitman Interior Design, on the other hand, is confident that her renderings, generated using Autodesk 3ds Max and V-Ray, offer an accuracy that “sets realistic expectations and helps clients make decisions,” says Whitman. In fact, she often compares the generated images against the completed project and finds that they’re nearly identical. Not to mention, “the renderings also help us make quick changes if the client doesn’t like something.”
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The ease-of-use sentiment is shared by many other professionals, including Jessica Shaw, interior design director at the Turett Collaborative. “Rendering programs allow us to manipulate finishes—say, swap out one stone for another in a bathroom rendering—very quickly.” She adds that the firm’s in-house renderings stay very true to specified items, and in this way, “the renderings do in fact relate closely to the final design.”
The takeaways
While there’s no clear answer to whether you should invest in or produce in-house photorealistic renderings, the majority of those we spoke to say that such visuals “are useful tools for enabling productive conversations about the space and all key aspects of the design, from scale and flow to materiality and furniture,” says Shaw. But there are caveats such as presenting them later in the process and in conjunction with preliminary hand-drawn illustrations.
“With some of the AI tools we’ll see in 2024, realistic renderings will become increasingly easier to achieve,” says Martin, who believes that renderings can pay for themselves when used right. “A rule of design, though, is ‘change is imminent.’ There can be backorders and site changes in a project. So, it’s important to convey that the rendering is more like a roadmap and goal—not the finished project.”