How to Help a Client Visualize a Project When You Can’t Meet
Inspiration photos, mood boards, 3D models, sample boxes and even drones help bridge the gap in a remote client meeting
As a design pro, you no doubt are skilled at visualizing what a project will look like when complete — it’s one of the things that makes you good at your work. You’ve probably also found that many of your clients don’t share this talent.
Communicating visual information is challenging enough when you can meet with clients in person. But the remote client meetings so common in the current environment bring additional obstacles. We recently spoke with design pros to find out how they help clients visualize a project when meeting remotely. Read on for their tips, then please share your own in the Comments.
Communicating visual information is challenging enough when you can meet with clients in person. But the remote client meetings so common in the current environment bring additional obstacles. We recently spoke with design pros to find out how they help clients visualize a project when meeting remotely. Read on for their tips, then please share your own in the Comments.
Create a Mood Board or Concept Board
A classic way to convey visual information is, of course, a mood board, which allows clients to quickly see the overall plan for a room. While some designers still make physical mood boards, there are plenty of ways to do it on the computer and share it with clients digitally. For the Bridgehampton project, Flannery created a 30-page PowerPoint presentation with a slide for every room and deck. You can also use Houzz Pro to create mood boards to share with your clients. These boards can also be presented to the client over a video call.
Landscape designer Anna Brooks of Arcadia Gardens in Stevensville, Michigan, helps clients visualize their projects by creating plant palettes and compiling concept boards (essentially mood boards, but for landscape concepts). She also provides plan view drawings that show the design from above so her clients can see how the layout will look relative to their overall property.
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A classic way to convey visual information is, of course, a mood board, which allows clients to quickly see the overall plan for a room. While some designers still make physical mood boards, there are plenty of ways to do it on the computer and share it with clients digitally. For the Bridgehampton project, Flannery created a 30-page PowerPoint presentation with a slide for every room and deck. You can also use Houzz Pro to create mood boards to share with your clients. These boards can also be presented to the client over a video call.
Landscape designer Anna Brooks of Arcadia Gardens in Stevensville, Michigan, helps clients visualize their projects by creating plant palettes and compiling concept boards (essentially mood boards, but for landscape concepts). She also provides plan view drawings that show the design from above so her clients can see how the layout will look relative to their overall property.
See more resources for pros in Houzz Pro Learn
Leverage the Possibilities of 3D
When it’s helpful, Brooks also uses 3D tools to help her clients visualize a project. “We do use a landscape design software program that simultaneously creates a 3D model as we create the 2D drawings, so in some instances can easily generate a model of what their project will look like if it’s more complicated or changes the exterior appearance of the existing buildings significantly,” she says. Examples of when 3D would be helpful in her practice include when the design involves adding a trellis, an arbor or a screened porch to an existing residence, or changing siding and veneer colors, Brooks says.
Designer Tiara Holloway of Vivacious Interior by Tiara in Richmond, Virginia, has used the 3D tools within Houzz Pro during the pandemic to help her clients understand how to lay out furniture when she can’t be there to oversee installation. One such client was a hair salon for which Holloway created an e-design. “A week later, furniture started coming in and she was lost on how to set up,” Hollway says. So Holloway quickly built out a 3D floor plan using Houzz Pro and shared that with the client to guide her in laying out the furnishings. “She was actually able to set up it up,” Holloway says. “It worked out perfect.”
Architect Jimmy Crisp of Crisp Architects in Millbrook, New York, goes a step beyond digital 3D plans for some clients and makes physical models. “We build them simply and quickly,” he says. “We have a lot of printers and we print out the elevations of the buildings and apply them to foam core with little stick pins. I would say for most clients that is the most effective way — they love it.” Typically, Crisp delivers his 3D models to the clients in person, but he’s also mailed them across the country.
Another tool Crisp likes to use to help clients visualize is drones. “I have a couple of drones I use almost every week, where I either am taking site photos of construction and sending it to our clients, or if I’m meeting a new client I can pick a drone up and show them exactly what the view will be from their second-story bedroom window.” Crisp also shares these drone images with clients via email or an online file-sharing program.
When it’s helpful, Brooks also uses 3D tools to help her clients visualize a project. “We do use a landscape design software program that simultaneously creates a 3D model as we create the 2D drawings, so in some instances can easily generate a model of what their project will look like if it’s more complicated or changes the exterior appearance of the existing buildings significantly,” she says. Examples of when 3D would be helpful in her practice include when the design involves adding a trellis, an arbor or a screened porch to an existing residence, or changing siding and veneer colors, Brooks says.
Designer Tiara Holloway of Vivacious Interior by Tiara in Richmond, Virginia, has used the 3D tools within Houzz Pro during the pandemic to help her clients understand how to lay out furniture when she can’t be there to oversee installation. One such client was a hair salon for which Holloway created an e-design. “A week later, furniture started coming in and she was lost on how to set up,” Hollway says. So Holloway quickly built out a 3D floor plan using Houzz Pro and shared that with the client to guide her in laying out the furnishings. “She was actually able to set up it up,” Holloway says. “It worked out perfect.”
Architect Jimmy Crisp of Crisp Architects in Millbrook, New York, goes a step beyond digital 3D plans for some clients and makes physical models. “We build them simply and quickly,” he says. “We have a lot of printers and we print out the elevations of the buildings and apply them to foam core with little stick pins. I would say for most clients that is the most effective way — they love it.” Typically, Crisp delivers his 3D models to the clients in person, but he’s also mailed them across the country.
Another tool Crisp likes to use to help clients visualize is drones. “I have a couple of drones I use almost every week, where I either am taking site photos of construction and sending it to our clients, or if I’m meeting a new client I can pick a drone up and show them exactly what the view will be from their second-story bedroom window.” Crisp also shares these drone images with clients via email or an online file-sharing program.
Send Samples and Lean on Showroom Visits
As much as technology has advanced to allow for sharing visual information with clients, some parts of the design and decision-making process just aren’t ideal to do remotely. “I have a client who is trying to select paint colors right now. That’s almost impossible to do remotely,” says Flannery, the Emeryville designer. “I’ve been sending him colors off the paint deck and telling him to get the little pots” of paint and try them out on the walls. But without Flannery seeing the light in the room in person, the decision-making process becomes more challenging for the client. So she’ll need to visit the site to help him make a final selection.
Similarly, for the Bridgehampton project mentioned earlier, Flannery will eventually need to travel across the country “to ensure correct furniture placement, add accessories, select and place art and generally finesse the end result and bring it all together,” she says.
For items like fabric, tile or flooring, it can be pretty hard for clients to make a decision without seeing the materials in person. “If you can, send a sample box,” suggests Danielle Perkins of Danielle Interior Design & Decor in San Diego. “Physical touch and really getting that emotional connection to the pieces” can help, she says. This is also true for items such as sofas — clients simply want to sit on them and try them out, Perkins says. So these might be situations where a showroom appointment, with COVID-19 safety precautions in place, would be helpful to the client.
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As much as technology has advanced to allow for sharing visual information with clients, some parts of the design and decision-making process just aren’t ideal to do remotely. “I have a client who is trying to select paint colors right now. That’s almost impossible to do remotely,” says Flannery, the Emeryville designer. “I’ve been sending him colors off the paint deck and telling him to get the little pots” of paint and try them out on the walls. But without Flannery seeing the light in the room in person, the decision-making process becomes more challenging for the client. So she’ll need to visit the site to help him make a final selection.
Similarly, for the Bridgehampton project mentioned earlier, Flannery will eventually need to travel across the country “to ensure correct furniture placement, add accessories, select and place art and generally finesse the end result and bring it all together,” she says.
For items like fabric, tile or flooring, it can be pretty hard for clients to make a decision without seeing the materials in person. “If you can, send a sample box,” suggests Danielle Perkins of Danielle Interior Design & Decor in San Diego. “Physical touch and really getting that emotional connection to the pieces” can help, she says. This is also true for items such as sofas — clients simply want to sit on them and try them out, Perkins says. So these might be situations where a showroom appointment, with COVID-19 safety precautions in place, would be helpful to the client.
More for Pros on Houzz
Read more stories for pros
Learn about Houzz Pro software
Talk with your peers in the Pro-to-Pro discussions
Join the Houzz Trade Program
The good news is that many of the tools that work to communicate visual information with clients when you meet in person can still be helpful when those meetings are done remotely. Photos, for instance, can be helpful in guiding clients through design choices even in a virtual conversation.
“I use a ton of photos,” says designer Carolyn Rebuffel Flannery of Workroom C in Emeryville, California. Throughout the pandemic, she has been working on a home in Bridgehampton, New York. Normally, she’d fly across the country multiple times to meet with the client and oversee the process, but given New York state’s COVID-19-related requirement that visitors from California quarantine for two weeks, a site visit just isn’t practical.
So recently, to help her client decide on the details of a bench seat for the home’s mudroom, Flannery searched for photos of modern mudrooms on Houzz and shared examples with the client over a videoconference call. Those photos helped her client “isolate all of the details in a way that she completely understood,” Flannery says. The designer was able to forward the selected details to the drafter to come up with the bench design.
Photos are helpful not only for communicating design ideas midproject, but also for demonstrating to a client that you understand their vision and aesthetic and will be able to create a project they’ll love. “Using photos is always huge for us,” Flannery says. “This is often the way I will close on a project.”