One plan or section you're actually about to brief. Reply with it and we'll tell you which stage of render it needs — massing study, presentation set, or marketing hero — in two lines. No render, no obligation.
Why not just quote it?
Most render briefs already assume the stage — "we need a render" — without settling which of three very different things that means. Get the stage wrong and you either pay for polish a decision doesn't need yet, or present a rough pass as if it were final. That's a scope question, and it's one we can answer honestly before anything gets modelled, lit, or quoted.
01 Massing & orientation
Early in a brief, most of what you need answered is whether the volume reads right on its site — massing, orientation, how it sits against neighbours or the road. A flat daylight pass, honest materials, no dusk mood, no styled entourage, answers that in one image and costs a fraction of a full presentation set. Briefing a marketing hero here is usually money spent on decisions that are not settled yet.
02 Presentation set
Once the design is settled and the image is going in front of a client, a board, or a lender, the render needs to carry every material decision — cladding changes, glazing proportions, entrance detailing — at a resolution someone can scrutinise. This is the stage most briefs actually mean when they say "a render," and it is the one most often either under-specified (a massing pass presented as if it were final) or over-specified (a marketing-grade dusk hero for an internal review).
03 Marketing hero
A launch page, a brochure cover, a fundraising deck — here the image has to do the persuading, not just the informing. Dusk or lit-interior mood, a deliberate camera angle, atmosphere over material accuracy. Commissioning this stage before the design is locked is the single most common way a render budget gets spent twice.
We'd rather you know exactly what you're asking for than send something and be surprised by the answer.
We don’t make a test image, a clay pass or a "quick preview" to show our working. The note is written — which stage the brief calls for, and the one-line reason why.
A PDF page, a photo of a sketch, a screenshot of the model — whatever you’re actually briefing this month. Nothing needs to be render-ready to get a scope answer.
The note is yours regardless of what you do next. If it saves you from over- or under-ordering the wrong stage, that’s the whole point of sending it.
Attach it, screenshot it, or just describe it in your own words. We'll come back with a two-line scope note — not a form answer, and not a render.
Reply nowThe one plan, elevation, or section you’re actually briefing this month — for us or for anyone else. A PDF page, a screenshot, or a photo of a sketch is enough; nothing needs to be render-ready.
Two lines: which of the three stages (massing & orientation, presentation set, or marketing hero) the brief calls for, and the one-line reason why. No render is made to produce the note.
A quote assumes you’ve already picked the stage. This note is the step before that — so the brief you send out (to us or anyone) asks for the right thing the first time.
The two-line note, not a form response, usually inside a couple of working days.
No. The note is yours regardless. If it turns into a project, we’ll talk about that separately — nothing here is priced or upsold.
That’s a valid answer and we’ll say so — e.g. a presentation set now, with a marketing hero flagged for once the design is locked.
Reply with it — we'll send back a two-line scope note, no render made and nothing owed either way.
