Alex Hogrefe - Architecture Graphics (Review)

Visitor Center Interior Illustration www.alexhogrefe.com

Over the last three years at University there has always been a demand from tutors to represent your idea graphically, to our young architectural minds this is a need to illustrate your ideas to the best of your ability demonstrating the sensuality of the proposed space. Gone are the days of a simplistic watercolour paintings or pencil and crayon, as we yearn for photorealistic projection; coming from what I regard as a lost generation we find ourselves at a menacing threshold, one step backwards from graphite and one step forward towards vectors and pixels whilst learning the principles of architecture.The advantage gained by this new generation is that we can let others see into our minds,using CAD systems but applying drawing techniques in softwares.

There has been no direct teaching from my school on how to represent your idea using the softwares, so it has been a self taught dimension to the course; I do not see this as a downfall as it has given me strengths elsewhere.The school does now, guide the younger years ( I am in third year) through the process of representation,layouts and softwares which is evident in the grades.

Recently, a couple of students from my class came across a site known as www.alexhogrefe.com. Alex created his website in 2009 for the purpose of his education, as it was a mechanism that enabled him to show his tutors his progress through his final project. The website then became a place where he added his thoughts,work and experiments,eventually  it was moulded into a site relating to all things visual. Alex posts his photography and drawings which he regards as...

 'A large part of my understanding of proportion,layout,composition,lighting and many other factors,that directly relate to architectural drawings'.

www.alexhogrefe.com has now become a form of bible to the Architecture students, as there has not been many dedicated sites that concentrate on representational techniques that take the raw model through to a finished illustration, discussing the software used and the workflow to follow. He mainly works in Google Sketch Up, the free rendering programme Kerkythea and Adobe Photoshop CS3; many of the tutorials cover Daytime/Nighttime renders, Lighting,Photoshop Post Processing,quick tip sections and much more.Tutorials are written and are shown through video presentations via youtube.

I am pleased that we came across his website, as it has had an influence on our work, although most of us do not render with Kerkythea or use sketch up we have common ground when we reach Photoshop. Gathering an understanding of the elements required in the work flow, we can adapt the information for our own uses.

The portfolio layout element is also a positive introduction into the uses of indesign, grid layouts and page spreads.

I would like to thank Alex Hogrefe for continuing to post his work and processes on to his website, as it has genuinely helped me personally and probably many others who have never seen directly how to construct such illustrations.

Please have a look and support www.alexhogrefe.com

© 2014 Kerri Rochelle Simpson copyright 

All rights reserved