The Architectural Illustrator: A Key Figure in Visual Communication

Abstract

In contemporary architectural practice a key role in visual communication is performed by the illustrator. This professional shares the expertise of the architect, master of a strictly technical-engineering language, and the artist in the broadest sense of the term. For an architect drawing is a means, for the illustrator an end in itself. As a mediator between the designer and the general public, he must be able to deeply understand the architect’s thoughts, translate his ideas into images and convey the correct message to the audience. Sometimes visual messages, though obvious to the illustrator, can be unclear for the observer and generate misleading responses. In these cases the type of image has great importance being a sort of language more or less understandable. This paper reports on a survey that was created in order to assess some of the fundamental elements that characterize the visual products. It was carried out at the Department of Architecture and Design, University of Genoa, and its results support the thesis that the architect’s idea and creative spirit can best be conveyed by a hand drawn image, whether traditionally or digitally executed, rather than a computer-generated image such as a photorealistic render.

Keywords

• architectural illustration
• communication
• drawing
• render
• survey