Author: Paul Skuse

Author | Paul Skuse, Oakfield Design & Creation

In an arms race for cut-through, CGI sequences are getting shorter and faster as attention spans become even shorter still.

Those of a certain vintage will remember the epic fight scene in Rocky IV between Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago, still classed as the finest fight scene ever filmed and directed.

Sylvester Stallone recently went back into the editing studio to re-cut this entire scene from the movie for the modern viewer, as the original sequences from 1985 are, in his words, “just too damned slow and cumbersome for today’s world.”

We’ve witnessed the exact same shift in viewing tolerances with our recent CGI film sequences. But instead of a 35-year change in the process, we’ve seen the attention span of our viewers plummet in the last five years.

The excerpt shown here is just a small part of the opening sequence from a 2018 urban apartment scheme in Birmingham and explores how we would now look to re-cut this original sequence from 27 seconds to 8 seconds just to hold the viewers’ attention.

That’s a reduction to a third of the time, in just five years!

Basically, we’re moving from CGI film production to film trailers.

The days of long, languid shots and smooth tracking pans are gone. We’re replacing these tools with short, snappy sequences that mirror the social media (and I include LinkedIn in this) demand for disruption of the viewer’s eyeline, to cut through the vast amount of content being pumped out.

It’s an arms race. Our CGI sequences are getting shorter as attention spans become even shorter still.

How far this particular trend will extend will be interesting to see, but I believe we have a little way to go before we reach the cut off point. As long as we ease back well before we reach the realm of ‘Blipverts’ (one to three second advertising segments) or perhaps the trend will buck as we sprint towards a saturation point of the content we’re all willing to consume.

One thing is for sure though, the next stages will need to be faster and faster as we scroll quicker and quicker.

Author | Paul Skuse, Oakfield Design & Creation

Interior design for property development has seen a recent move from the popular “Soft-Scandi” approach and is now referencing terms such as Japandi (a combination of Scandinavian functionality with Japanese rustic minimalism) with following the lines of minimalist, uncluttered, design – maximising space and light.

This evolution of interior spaces is proving to be very appealing and successful, but are your floor plans following this same clean and orderly design style?

We recently “inherited” some previously designed floor plans as we were commissioned to take over the branding, design and marketing for a contemporary residential scheme and were amazed at the level of information that was loaded into the existing marketing floor plans that we were supplied.

The herringbone timber flooring to the ground floor and carpets to the upper levels were shown in full graphic illustration, confusing the potential buyer’s eye and detracting from what our plans are really wanting to portray – space and light.

Often, in the marketplace, we see plans that are a level better than this “load everything into the plans including the kitchen sink (although we advocate adding the sink and hob positions to our plans as an important addition!)” but are still too cramped and infilled with heavy colours or dark tints.

When it comes to creating marketing plans for houses (and apartments) that work at an optimal level that are informative and easy to understand, I’m from the Zen-like school of thinking.

Clean, crisp and simple. White space, minimal furniture clearly giving a sense of perspective of each room’s size. Light grey or light colour tints for the exterior and stud walls. A super-light tint surrounding the plans to accentuate the white space of the floor plans themselves.

Dims should be listed alongside, not placed inside the plans themselves. We also like to add small arrows to our plans to show the exact position the dimensions are measured from, especially with rooms that have a dog-leg design layout.

And finally, although of primary importance, size matters. Too often we see a three-storey, five bed home with its floor plans all squeezed onto a single page. We’re selling square footage here so look to keep one or a max of two plans side by side on a full page, allowing our buyers to really study the architectural and interior design and understand the flow of the rooms and entire home.

By showing less we can actually show more and give our viewers a much better understanding and representation of the homes we’re marketing to them.

Apartment full-floor and individual plans follow this same set of principals but also have their own additional idiosyncrasies which I’ll discuss in a later article.

Author | Paul Skuse, Oakfield Design & Creation

Although they always look stunning in the sunshine, not every property development marketing CGI image or film needs to be lit as if it’s noon and a beautiful sunny July day.

Yes, using gorgeous sunny conditions when creating house type or street scene exteriors and interior room sets works perfectly in showcasing a space or elevation and illustrating the desirability of certain spaces.

But sometimes the room or setting can be enhanced by moving away from the norm and showcasing with lower light levels or in some cases even night-time.

Bedrooms are a great first example. We spend almost our entire time in bedrooms when light levels are lowest. They are our sanctuary, a quiet place and when dressed and lit in such a way we can really portray the ambience and tranquillity of these spaces. We’re selling the lifestyle not just the room, painting a picture and an even more realistic understanding of the homes we’re marketing off-plan.

We can bring the same desirability to other living spaces also. Sometimes a cityscape view from an urban apartment’s living space can be more attractive at night. By moving from a cool urban vibe by day, to a calm sophisticated space by night, we can exhibit the best of a city location to hook into our demographic’s aspirational lifestyle.

Interior lighting has such an effect on our environments, sometimes even from the outside. At Charterhouse Yard we wanted to showcase how the timber slatted exterior window features enhanced the architecture as the sun dropped in the sky and day turned to dusk.

By taking the time to really focus on each room or elevation in detail there are times when we can use low light to really highlight a space to maximise its desirability in the viewers mind and drive enquiries.

Author | Paul Skuse, Oakfield Design & Creation

Have you ever stopped to consider how important doors are in the effectiveness of property development marketing?

I can guess that’s not a question you’re asked very often.

In this age of the social media arms-race everybody is employing the technique of “disrupting the eye” as the only way to cut through the sheer weight of content now on view. Just take a look at your Pinterest feed, it seems that every third placeholder these days is a ‘fast-moving action’ advert. As annoying as this tactic is, it’s works. It’s the same with Facebook or Twitter feeds and LinkedIn posts.

Including this one.

Well, if you can’t beat them…..

But and this is an important but, we’re not just blatantly advertising here with CGI films. We’re showcasing added features and benefits that potential buyers could well miss if we stayed with static images or static room sets.

We’re allowing viewers (your buyers) to make a more informed decision.

By catching attention with opening doors, we can take the viewer into key rooms, or often more importantly, out through one space into the next to illustrate how the architecture and interior design has been designed to add flow to a room.

This is especially important when showcasing modern family living with large kitchen/dining/living spaces. By opening the large bi-fold or patio door sets the viewer is immediately drawn to the spacious garden or courtyard, or often with apartments schemes, the city or countryside views on offer with certain units.

It’s also a clever way to showcase how natural light will move through a room. By utilising our software to accurately move the light cast from the sun across an animated CGI room set on a specific calendar day (almost always mid-summer!) we can accurately depict exactly how the fenestration will allow light into an interior space.

Doors are an integral part of the marketing process. By showcasing them in an attractive and considered way we can help your potential buyers make the decision to reserve early, off-plan, with confidence and enable them to guarantee their preferred view or that south facing plot.

As always, we’re using strategies and techniques that allow buyers to reserve with both excitement and peace of mind in equal measure by making the off-plan purchasing experience as informative and enjoyable as possible, opening the door to more and quicker sales.

Sorry, I just couldn’t resist that pun!

Author | Paul Skuse, Oakfield Design & Creation

It’s been a slow take-up for QR codes, but they’re beginning to gain traction.

Originating in Japan in 1994, Quick Response (QR) codes have finally crossed over into our everyday lives. We’re getting used to seeing them on business cards, they are now the image on our airline boarding passes and train travel tickets, and they’re used to gain access to the cinema or events. As we become ever more tied to our phones, these strange-looking squares have become increasingly commonplace on our screens and in our lives.

But what are the merits of incorporating them into our property development site branding and hoardings?  

As with most things in this day and age, it all comes down to speed and convenience. We’ve found that adding a QR code as part of the call-to-action on site hoardings has increased engagement with prospective buyers. Using QR codes is a great way to streamline the user experience and ensure prospects can access information about the scheme as quickly and efficiently as possible.  

QR Codes can easily fit with the site branding style and colour palette

They direct potential customers to exactly where we want to take them, to the scheme’s landing page rather than the developer’s website home page. 

They allow the potential buyer to interact with the development instantly and easily.  

By scanning a QR code, customers can bypass home pages and laborious click throughs and go straight to the scheme’s landing page, the sales agent’s development page or direct to the development’s WebBrochure.  

Accuracy is also vitally important. Customers are likely to make errors while typing, especially on a phone. Compared to this, scanning a QR code is a much faster and error-free process. If the prospect has only a short time window, passing in the car for instance, then a quick scan has the landing page ready and waiting for a later read. The sales journey begins.  

Now we know they are, let’s face it, not very attractive. They won’t be winning any design awards or beauty contests anytime soon. They look like a bar code, because – well, that’s exactly what they are. But they can be improved by using the development’s branding style and colour palette. Bold or sophisticated colours can be a great addition to their blocky design. As long as there is a strong contrast between the background and the pixel-style scanning area, then the phone can still easily read the code. The image at the top of this article illustrates just this.  

Depending on your buyer’s demographic – not all potential buyer categories are tech-savvy so may need a nudge in the right direction – we advise adding a small instruction that nudges people to take the required action. Something along the lines of ‘Scan here to view the website’ or ‘Scan here to view the development’ is a straightforward pointer.  

In this digital era of business and marketing where everything is done through our smartphones, we’re now able to follow potential buyers as they travel along each scheme’s defined sales journey. QR codes enable us to track and measure engagement alongside other analytics, allowing us to improve and enhance our marketing strategies to drive enquiries and ultimately, accelerate off-plan sales.  

It’s time to embrace and take advantage of these odd-looking but impactful tools. We are seeing ways in which we can evolve their designs, but in some shape or form, we believe these genuinely useful sales assets are here to stay.

Author | Paul Skuse

PropTech is more than just a new buzzword. It signifies the socio-economic trends and technology solutions that are already disrupting and transforming the entire real estate sector.

It is both a threat and an opportunity for developers.

We sat down with Daniel Harris at Savills to find out more.

Paul Skuse, Oakfield DC:
Can you give me an example of a PropTech innovation?

Daniel Harris, Savills:
Proptech refers to the new technology that is designed for real estate. The new build sector has pioneered the adoption of such technologies, and as a result PropTech is playing an increasingly important role in the way new residential developments are built, marketed and sold.

The way we live today is very different from just two years ago and the pace of change is increasing all the time. For instance, there are keyless door entry systems and intelligent lighting controls which you can operate using an application on your phone. In sales and marketing, agents now have access to virtual reality technology to enable buyers to see a property in 3D before they buy. We are tracking these changes and advising our clients as to how they can make the most of modern technology to stay ahead of the competition and build for the future.

PS:
Is this starting to become a must-have or still a nice-to-have for purchasers?

DH:
Developers are always looking to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. Prop Tech is also something that excites people and if you can talk about these things in your marketing literature, you’ll likely increase people’s interest even more.

PS:
So is this the beginning of “Smart Homes”?

DH:
I think it is, Smart Home Technology. In the main, we’re now seeing electric car parking and charging points more and more in residential developments. We’re seeing schemes where people can charge their car from their garage.

Adding these features now is helping to future proof the build and sales cycles of these schemes. It might seem pretty innovative today, but actually when the scheme’s complete in two years’ time, it could be standard for people to have these features.

PS:
So these future elements need to be factored into the build right now?

DH:
I think we always have to be looking ahead in our business. We’ve always got to have our finger on the pulse in terms of what’s happening out there, where the trends are, what people like and what they want and expect. So, you’ve got to plan ahead and see where you think the latest technology is going. You’re also using it as a tool for differentiating the build and to be seen as more up-to-date.

PS:
And ahead of the curve?

DH:
Exactly, staying ahead of the curve.

Author | Paul Skuse

When creating exterior CGI images the computer and software we use can only take us so far. It builds the walls, it lays the roof, it renders the brickwork. Everything is exactly as the supplied CAD file asks. And this is perfect.

But it’s not perfect at all. Not to the naked eye.

In nature and in man-made construction, nothing is in a straight line. Everything is slightly imperfect. The walls are not built in an exact line, the roof tiles are not laid in a perfect pattern and this is how the real world really is when we view it.

So when we look at the computers’ finished model we know that our real work is about to start. Our artists now begin the painstaking and vitally important detailing to slightly roughen the lines, to move the tiles, to readjust the line of the overhang, to reposition the downpipes by just a few millimetres. Brick built walls are tweaked – only slightly, but enough. The pointing is roughened in photoshop, subtle, almost undetectable weathering is added to roof tiles and stonework, the clean ramrod straight wall is no longer ramrod and so now the wall is believable – it’s photorealistic.

Author | Paul Skuse

Whether we are building a room set to showcase a family home or a bespoke mansion, a barn conversion or luxury high-end penthouse apartment, the interior design process and methodology to make the very best of the space we are marketing is always the same.

Stage One – The Target
Before we begin any room set creation we start by asking and then understanding exactly who our key target audience are, what styles and lifestyle aspirations they would want in their home and why they should find the set we design appealing.

Stage Two – The Space
Only once we have this information can we start asking the key questions about the creation of the room set. These will include:

•  How will the layout of the set and the features within the interior space best suit our target audience?

•  Will the target market prefer a modern or contemporary look?

•  What are the key selling features of the space we are looking to present?

•  How do we best enhance and maximise the definition and impact of these key features?

Based on the position of our viewpoint, how will the light move through the set as the sun moves through its axis? At what time of day will the room maximise this light?

Author | Paul Skuse

A little known Russia based 3D printing specialist company called Apis Cotr broke new ground recently by offering us a glimpse into what the future of construction might look like.

3D printing a home usually involves creating the parts off-site and then delivering these pieces to be constructed on site.

Apis Cotr decided to change the rules and the assembly process. By using an on-site 3D printer (on a missive scale), inch by inch, stage by stage, level by level, they moulded a concrete-like material into the shape of a house.

Apis Cotr’s machine created the whole house in one piece (minus the roof which they chose to lay by hand) in an eye-opening time and cost.

The printing of the self-bearing walls, partitions and building envelope were completed in 24 hours, costing just over $10,000 in materials and labour and can last up to 175 years.

This innovative construction company states that they use only locally sourced materials, with the printer adapting to this material, whether clay in rural areas or concrete in urban areas.

 

The Grand Vision

In the first instance, Apis Cotr now plan to use their skills and unique expertise to provide quick and affordable housing to the billions worldwide without adequate homes. A spokesman added, “The construction process needs to become fast, efficient and high-quality. For this to happen we need to delegate all the hard work to smart machines.”

Once this construction technique is proven to pass all regulatory rules, how long before we see our developments cleared of much of their labour and site machinery and replaced by only a handful of on-site specialists and experts and a field full of 3D printers?

Will this mean an extraordinary jump in GDV or transversely an extraordinary reduction in house prices? Only time and the speed of change will tell.