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 device to proclaim the honoree’s story. The ancient Master Builder – the architektōn – made the story a prominent design feature of the temple to be admired by the masses, … [Read more...]
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 did it have? Or asked another way, how many stories did it have? We deal in stories all the time; we design multi-story buildings or single-story homes. This … [Read more...]
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 online can waste away the precious few hours that we are afforded each day. There are a dozen different channels from which to choose. Each has its strengths … [Read more...]
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 an understanding of basic business fundamentals and often with an eager acceptance that life as an architect will be a difficult struggle. I was born an … [Read more...]
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 professional services industries like architecture. It says that 80% of new commissions come from repeat clients and … [Read more...]
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 possible to be more “likeable”? How do we build real trust with those whom we seek to serve? How To Become Known as an Architect In order to know more people and to have more people know us, we need to … [Read more...]
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 completed projects to show. We can’t complete any projects without a firm and its tough to start a firm without any projects. How do we start a new firm without a project portfolio full of … [Read more...]
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 without proper planning, without an understanding of basic business fundamentals and often with an eager acceptance that life as an architect will be a difficult … [Read more...]
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 were to create a firm unlike anyone else and we needed a name to separate us from the pack. After a few days of considering alternatives, the name Fivecat Studio consistently rose to the top. Clearly … [Read more...]
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, at its most basic definition, is simply telling our story... to our market. Every one of us is telling a story, whether we intend to or not. Our story is being told through our work, … [Read more...]