Illustration Services: You Often Need A Drawing To Explain The Plans

Before I began designing retail stores I worked as a production designer in the Hollywood film industry. I spent twenty-odd years art directing television commercials, music videos, and feature films.

One of the many film projects I worked on was the feature film, The People Under The Stairs, written and directed by the late Wes Craven. After reading the script and discussing the story with him, I knew I would have to give him an idea of what I had in mind for the look of the film so he would feel secure I had embraced his vision for the film.

I set out to collect a cache of reference material depicting images of worn and decrepit old houses that I collected from various sources. Some of the reference came from the Paramount Studios reference library, some from my own collection of books, and also from the venerable Hennessy & Ingalls book store in Santa Monica, a treasure trove of great books on art and architecture. By the way, this film was done before the advent of the internet, which explains some of my actions.

Wes and I met again, poured through the reference materials and discussed what we thought would work best for the film. I left to begin drawing the plans.

When we met next, I presented the working drawings, an extensive set of floor plans, elevations, and details of the architecture required for the three story house where all the action takes place. Wes was attentive and stayed focused on the meeting. What I didn’t supply was a set of illustrations depicting what the scenes would look like. I figured I had covered that with the vast amount of research I had supplied and we had discussed.

When thee scenery was built and everything was complete we collected Wes for the tour of the extensive sets filling two giant sound stages on a movie lot.

Wes walked in and was immediately shocked. What I had built was not what he had had in mind, regardless of the materials I had supplied. I was pulled out of the fire by the producer who took Wes aside and reminded him that the scenery was what I had represented in the plans.

I would have done a much better job for Wes had I supplied him with renderings of the scenry, rather than simply the building plans. Some people have a difficult time making the transition from plans to reality, and wes was one of those people.

I now make a good deal of my living supplying architects, directors, store owners, museum directors and home owners the visualizations they require to fully understand their project and where their money will be spent.