Gift Ideas for Architecture Students

Given the holidays are coming and people have been asking what I want for the Holidays, I figured I should post some gift ideas for your favorite architect.

Architecture Mug by The Unemployed Philosopher's Guild

The Great Architecture Mug

Perfect for the architect in your life. Architectural drawings of 10 famous buildings from classical to classic. Holds 10 oz. Microwave and dishwasher safe. 

Tutorial: Drafting Necessities

Drafting Leads

Since everyone uses leads with varying amounts of pressure and the need for depth in architectural plans and renderings resulted in the needs for many different types of leads. B Leads are darker and as you get to 9B they become more and more charcoal like. When starting to draft, always use an H, generally 4H to 9H. They are lighter in shade, with a harder lead that erases the easiest. Just be careful not to write/draw too hard, it will indent the paper resulting in issues with paper texture and eraser. You can also get a ghosting affect when shading.

Tutorial: Indesign Tips for Architecture Boards

Intro

Over the many years of creating architectural boards for school there are a few main issues I noticed while learning to create them. Scale was always the biggest issues with students showing a section, plan or rendering too small to be legible during their presentation. This is also true for vignettes or renderings outlining the building's concept. Being Consistent in the creation of your presentation is also important. When the boards come together they need to belong. Font sizes should also be consistent and drawings should be close to the same saturation. Being subtle is the best approach so watch your picture opacity. This will start to create Visual Interest within your boards. Using large Text with your concept words is a good way to reinforce them during your presentation and help tie things together. Knowing what software to use and how to use it is also important in order to create successful drawings and renderings. 

Tutorial: Software for Architects

The creation of architecture drawings, renderings, portfolios and boards can involve many different types of software and there is software than can can meet all your needs. This tutorial outlines the most prevalent ones and how they might be used. Software is generally broken down into vector line work and image processing. Scale line work is important as a basis of any rendering or drawing. Then diagramming, context, habitation, and its environment can be added.

Cultural Community Hub
by KenepaStudio

There are many different software you can use, different add-ons and software versions and possible ways to use them together to create successful designs. The most prevalent software used for architectural design is AutoCAD, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Revit, Rhino, and SketchUp. Designs typically start to scale, either 2D or 3D and then imported via pdf into another program for tweaking/diagramming/processing, then placed in InDesign for printing.