Story Origins In the first two articles of this series, Architects as Storytellers and Architects’ Claim to Storyteller Status, we looked at the “Story Origins” of Architecture. We saw that the sculpted frieze of ancient Greek temples was used as a narrative device to honor a god or goddess. It told a story. We claimed […]
Architects’ Claim to Storyteller Status
In the first article of this series, Architects as Storytellers we looked at the possible historical and etymological origins for why we call the levels of a building “stories.” The main idea is that the frieze of an ancient Greek temple often featured sculpted scenes honoring a god or goddess. The frieze was a narrative […]
Architects as Storytellers
My fellow architects, you may not know it, but you have a rightful claim to the status of storyteller. Your professional roots of designing and constructing buildings are deeply connected to language, communication, and to storytelling in profound ways. Let me ask you a question: The last building project you completed – how many floors […]
Make Your Social Media Content More Shareable
Many (if not all) of us are using social media on a daily basis. Some of us restrict our time online to personal social interactions, while others use these powerful networking platforms to help promote our architectural businesses. Social media can certainly be a powerful tool, but if not carefully and intentionally managed, our time […]
How to Rewrite the Story of Our Profession
No More Starving Artist With a twisted sense of pride, too many architects today accept the small firm stereotype of “starving artist”. Seeds planted in architecture school bloom into a full-on virus as professionals launch their own firms and find their way to small business. New firms are launched every day without proper planning, without […]
Your Story is the Key to Your Success
This is a guest post written by architect Jeff Echols, the founder of echoEngagement, an Indianapolis-based brand storytelling firm. Jeff is s a Storyteller, a Networker; a Connector. He crafts engaging stories for businesses, individuals and organizations around their unique passion, purpose and value. There’s a statistic that gets thrown around from time to time in […]
How To Become Known as an Architect
It is an often repeated rule that people buy from those whom they “know, like and trust”. That phrase is easy to remember and sounds great as a tweet, but what does that really mean? How do we do that? How might we connect with more people and become better known? How is it […]
How To Start an Architecture Firm Without a Portfolio
Anyone who has started their own architecture firm from scratch knows this dilemma well. We are full of enthusiasm, full of ideas, fully prepared. We quit our job (or working throughout the night on the side). We planned our launch and created a new website to share our ideas with the world… but we have […]
No More Starving Artist
How to Rewrite the Story of Our Profession With a twisted sense of pride, too many architects today accept the small firm stereotype of “starving artist”. Seeds planted in architecture school bloom into a full-on virus as professionals launch their own firms and find their way to small business. New firms are launched every day […]
10 Rules for a Powerful Brand in Architecture
When Annmarie and I launched Fivecat Studio in 1999, we knew that we wanted to give our firm a unique identity. Every other firm in the region was named for their founders. Another “Smith and Smith Architects” was not what we wanted to be. (No offense to any Smith and Smiths out there.) Our plans […]
Entrepreneur Architect Academy 003 | Marketing for Architects
In Session 002, we developed our business and personal life plan. We dreamed big, defined our vision and identified our mission. Today we’re going to put all that information to work. Today we are going to tell some stories, or in the jargon of the business world, we are going to do some marketing. Marketing, […]