I'd like to take time in this blog post to just share an epiphany. (Happy March by the way!)
I never noticed it before, until Bev mentioned it to me. And so, have you ever seen an architectural firm advertise their services?
In my Week 1 post, I mentioned something about how most of an architect's work goes unnoticed or unrecognized. I meant this in the way of how most of an architect's work doesn't even make it past the conceptual stage. Not all ideas become a physical reality.
However, all of the work and effort taken in order to develop these ideas are not in vain. These plans and designs laid out on paper can be entered into competitions or submitted for awards. This is the start of recognition and ultimately, advertising.
For LEA, they have won numerous awards over the past years; one example is the Firehouse Station Design. This award is for fire stations that have been built. Then, in the awards edition of the Firehouse magazine, all of fire stations that won an award are displayed. This allows the firm name to become more 'exposed' to the public.
Advertising, in this sense, is solely based off of accomplishments. There are no TV jingles for architecture firms, because enough advertising is provided through their written name in a credible source, marking achievement.
Sometimes, this system proves to be a hurdle. It is similar to landing a first job. Employers want to have someone with experience, however how can one get hired if no one will hire them without prior experience? Likewise: people don't trust you to build/design their building until you've built one before.
This is where the ideas and conceptions become useful, as even though there might not be a future physical rendition of the architect's design, it is one step closer to having that goal attained.
Hi Victoria! That's so interesting, I had never thought about architects advertising, but I guess they really are in everywhere their work shows up, and everywhere we go!
ReplyDeleteSo if clients are looking for architects and firms with experience, how do you start a firm? Has anyone at LEA talked about how they started, and how they "got the ball rolling"?
Speaking of experience, do you help or look in on how they design a project? How do you think you'll design your own project?
Yup.. it's always that dilemma where in order to get a job, you must have experience.. so how do people with no experience get experience?
DeleteIn LEA's case, Larry started up his firm very very long ago, but with humble roots, so to say. Even now LEA is still a family-owned business, but in no way does it detract from their capabilities as a firm.
I'm not directly involved in the actual design process :) Buut, I definitely get to look into their ways. It is very rewarding to observe from a distance and see the full picture come together. So many different components!! :D