If you’re studying to be an architect or an architect who is just starting out, this is for you. You are going to face a mountain of competition and there’s only one real way to stand out from the crowd: a world-class architecture portfolio.
Every first-year architecture student knows they will have to have a portfolio, so how is yours going to help you stand out when you’re angling for jobs or selling new construction projects?
If you create a solid 3D visualization portfolio to accompany your standard 2D portfolio, you’ll be leagues ahead of your peers. In this post, we’ll explore this and various other architecture portfolio tips.
5 Tips to Create an Impressive Architecture Portfolio
With these five simple tips, you can create a portfolio of architecture visualizations that catches people’s attention and helps you advance your career.
Choose the best, but show variety
When you are deciding which projects to showcase in your architecture portfolio, you need to keep two things in mind:
- You should not include every project you have ever done.
- You should include every type of project you have ever done.
In other words, choose only your best projects for your portfolio, but also show the variety of projects you have done. For example, if all of your best work is on single-story homes, you should include one or two of those projects, but it’s worthwhile to throw in a strong two-story home project to show your range.
Include Team Projects
Your architectural visualization portfolio is about you, but it’s also about what you bring to the table. And because building design is almost always a team-oriented task, one of the things you need to bring to the table is the ability to work as part of a team.
You can demonstrate that ability in your architecture portfolio by including team projects — those projects for which you collaborated with a team of at least one other person. Mention in the title of the entry in your portfolio that you collaborated with another architect or professional. And if you want to get super detailed, you can highlight the portions of the project that were your work.
Show Off Your Design Skills
If you can design a run-of-the-mill house, that’s fine. But it isn’t going to turn many heads when you include boring and done-to-death floor plan designs with nothing more than the basic elements.
To be truly competitive with your architecture portfolio, you need to be able to show off your design skills. Of course, before you are an established architect, that might be tough. One easy solution is to use a low-cost, easy-to-use, and intuitive home design software like Cedreo.
With Cedreo, you can quickly create stunning floor plans, decorate, and furnish them. In as little as two hours, you can have a complete design to add to your architectural visualization portfolio in both 2D and 3D floor plans and renderings.
Have a creative focus you would like to showcase in your new portfolio? Use Cedreo to create designs that show off that focus and your skills. Need to sharpen the edges of what you’ve done in school so far? Don’t waste days with CAD software when you could accomplish the same thing in hours with Cedreo.
Include Real Photos
If at all possible, your architecture portfolio should include real photos of your finished projects. In other words, you need photos of the homes you’ve designed to bring the blueprints to life.
To add an extra layer of detail to your portfolio, you can show the initial floor plans and 3D renderings of your designs alongside the photos of the completed structures. This is particularly handy if you are selling new construction.
If you are relatively early in your career, you may not have any real-life projects under your belt, so there may be no way for you to include real photos of your completed work. While it’s always ideal to have real photos, you can include the next best thing by generating photorealistic 3D renderings of your designs with Cedreo. In high-definition detail, these renderings are as close to real-life photographs as you’re going to get.
Update Frequently
Think of your architectural visualization portfolio as a living document. As you complete new projects and gain new skills, you need to ensure that your portfolio reflects those achievements. That means you need to update it frequently.
If you’re using the right software to create 3D renderings of your projects, updating your portfolio doesn’t have to be a big, time-consuming task. For example, with Cedreo, you can generate photorealistic 3D renderings in minutes and export them as JPG, PNG, or PDF files to quickly add to your portfolio.
Adding projects to your portfolio as you complete them can save you time in the long run, which can be particularly helpful when you are competing for high-value design and architecture jobs. You don’t want to be wasting time tracking down old floor plan designs to add to your portfolio while your competitors are bidding for the jobs you want.
Conclusion
Your architecture portfolio is one of the most valuable assets in your professional life. If you build it with care, use the right software to capture and showcase your skills, and update it frequently, you can leverage your architecture visualization skills into millions of dollars in new business, as well as immeasurable career growth.
But like most home-building professionals, you are busy and probably stressed. You likely don’t have time to spend hours working on your portfolio every week. With Cedreo, that’s not a concern. Cedreo saves you time by storing all of your floor plan designs, automatically generating 3D renderings of your 2D designs, and creating stunning photorealistic visuals that can bring any portfolio to life.
Interested? Try Cedreo for free today.
