Content
Overview and approach
Graphic Design for Architects: A Manual for Visual Communication is a handbook of techniques, explanations, and examples of graphic design most relevant to architects, tailored specifically to their professional needs. [1] [3] The book addresses graphic design across a variety of scales, from portfolio design and competition boards to signage and building super-graphics, covering every phase of architectural production. [1] It combines and expands upon content typically found in graphic design, information design, and architectural graphics books, adapting these fields to create an architect-specific resource that eliminates the need to search general design texts for applicable methods. [1] [3]
The book's approach treats architecture as a systematic and visual project, emphasizing visual communication as a core tool for processing, organizing, and structuring architectural work. [1] It positions graphic techniques as integral to the design process rather than as afterthoughts, such as incorporating signage from the outset and viewing portfolios as reflections of a designer's working methods rather than mere promotional materials. [1] This methodology supports architects in communicating increasingly complex project components through clear, effective visual means. [6]
The content is organized by common architectural modes of communication and production phases, with chapters grouped into parts that align with these modes. [1] This structure ensures each section directly addresses projects and topics relevant to architects while presenting tailored graphic design methods to achieve their objectives. [1] As a result, the book serves as a complete reference for the graphic techniques most useful in architectural practice. [3]
Presenting yourself
Presenting yourself begins with the book's assertion that personal presentation materials, particularly portfolios and resumes, should reflect an architect's working methods and thought processes rather than serve solely as promotional tools. [1] The portfolio chapter stresses that this document manifests how the designer thinks and works, making it an essential demonstration of visual and spatial reasoning tailored to specific contexts such as graduate school applications emphasizing conceptual ideas, employer reviews prioritizing professionalism and organization, or academic positions requiring clear separation of student and research work. [1] [7]
Lewis guides readers through initial portfolio decisions including production methods, budget constraints, and choice of printing resources, while prioritizing curation that showcases relevant projects demonstrating visual thinking—even from non-architectural fields if necessary—over sheer volume of content. [7] The text advises favoring clarity and organization, preferring well-composed single pages to cluttered spreads, and considering the physical form, orientation, and tactile feel of the portfolio to convey the desired impression. [7] Editing and implementation receive emphasis, with recommendations for test prints to account for differences between screen and physical output, careful file preparation, and built-in time buffers to accommodate the often underestimated effort required. [7]
The accompanying chapter on resumes provides principles for designing these documents specifically for architectural job searches, incorporating graphic design fundamentals to establish visual hierarchy, effective typography, and balanced layouts that communicate professionalism and coherence in personal branding. [1] These techniques draw from broader graphic design methods outlined in the book, ensuring personal documents align with the systematic visual communication approach advocated throughout. [1]
Presenting to an audience
In the second part of the book, "Presenting to an Audience," Karen Lewis shifts focus from personal materials to outward-facing graphic design applications that enable architects to communicate projects effectively to external stakeholders such as competition juries, clients, and review panels. [1] This section comprises three chapters—Competitions, Presentations, and Books—that provide targeted techniques for designing competition entries, presentation boards and slides, and project proposals or publications. [7] Lewis stresses that these materials require deliberate visual strategies to construct persuasive narratives, distinct from inward-facing documents like portfolios or resumes.
The Competitions chapter concentrates on the creation of competition boards and entry packages, outlining methods for structuring arguments visually through hierarchical organization of content, management of information at multiple scales, layering of elements for depth, strategic image placement, and integration of diverse drawing types to convey architectural intent clearly and convincingly to jurors. [7] The discussion includes practical guidance on how these design choices support the overall proposal narrative, ensuring the submission stands out in competitive contexts. [1] Lewis complements the techniques with a conversation featuring Michael Piper, Principal of studio DUBS, who shares real-world insights into competition presentation design. [7]
The Presentations chapter addresses the graphic design of slides, boards, and other display formats used in client meetings, jury critiques, or public reviews, with emphasis on rhetorical structures that guide audience understanding, compacting complex information into clear messages, strategic color organization to direct focus, and seamless transitions from textual descriptions to visual imagery. [7] Lewis explains that effective presentations function as vehicles for making arguments, with layouts tailored to audience familiarity—whether progressing from broad context to details or vice versa—while grouping related evidence thematically, employing centered titles for orientation, layering drawing types to reveal spatial relationships, and using selective emphasis techniques such as colored filters to highlight key information. [12] A conversation with partners from Interboro Partners provides additional professional perspectives on presentation strategies. [7]
The Books chapter explores the graphic design of architectural proposals, monographs, or submission documents, covering printing technologies suitable for professional outputs, book ergonomics for user experience, pacing and sequencing of content, establishment of page grids and structures, type setting practices, and typographic mechanics that ensure readability and coherence across multi-page formats. [7] These principles enable architects to produce polished documents that support funding applications, client proposals, or publication efforts. [1] The chapter concludes with a conversation with Luke Bulman, Principal of Thumb, offering expert views on book design in architectural contexts. [7]
Architectural communication
Architectural communication forms the third part of the book and examines essential representational tools that architects use to analyze, explain, and convey complex design ideas. [1] Lewis emphasizes that contemporary architectural practice increasingly incorporates diagrams, information graphics, and maps to describe financial, organizational, environmental, or social aspects of projects, expanding the representational vocabulary beyond conventional orthographic drawings, renderings, and models. [7] These tools enable architects to process and structure their work through visual communication, facilitating clearer analysis and explanation of architectural concepts. [1]
The diagrams chapter addresses a range of diagram types and applications suited to architectural purposes. [13] It covers formal diagrams, techniques for explaining process, clarifying components, phenomenological explanations, information diagrams, and color production methods. [13] A conversation with Janette Kim, Principal of All of the Above, complements the discussion by providing insights from professional practice. [13]
The information graphics chapter focuses on data visualization techniques tailored to architectural needs. [13] It explores pie charts, bar charts, comparisons between pie and bar charts, presenting numbers effectively, flow charts, and types of data handling. [13] The section includes a conversation with Anne Filson and Andrew Rohrbacher of Filson and Rohrbacher to illustrate practical applications. [13]
The maps chapter details principles for designing maps that represent site conditions, contextual relationships, and urban environments. [13] It discusses coordinating information, layering information, levels of specificity, enhancing relationships, aggregating marks, and establishing hierarchy and detail. [13] A conversation with graphic designer Nicholas Felton offers additional perspectives on map design strategies. [13]
These tools are presented as foundational for architectural analysis and explanation, with potential application in presenting work to audiences such as in competitions. [1]
Communication as architecture
The fourth part of Graphic Design for Architects: A Manual for Visual Communication, titled "Communication as Architecture," examines the integration of graphic design at the scale of built environments, positioning graphics as essential architectural elements rather than decorative afterthoughts. [1] Lewis emphasizes that signage, wayfinding systems, and super-graphics must be developed early in the design process to align with the project's conceptual and spatial goals, ensuring they contribute to the overall user experience and architectural intent. [7] This approach treats graphic interventions as active participants in defining space, where visual communication becomes inseparable from the built form. [6]
Signage and wayfinding systems are presented as integral components of architectural production, designed to clarify spatial experiences, organize movement through buildings and landscapes, and communicate through elements such as walls and environmental markers. [1] Lewis argues that these systems should form coherent hierarchies and structures from the outset, rather than being applied post-construction, allowing them to reinforce the building's organizational logic and enhance navigability as part of the core design agenda. [7]
Super-graphics receive focused attention as large-scale applications on building facades and surfaces, capable of transforming architectural exteriors through branding, visual concealment, and engagement with urban contexts. [1] The book highlights how these facade-scale interventions extend the architectural project into the public realm, functioning as environmental communication tools that share conceptual priorities with the underlying structure. [6] By addressing graphics at this scale, Lewis underscores their role in creating unified spatial narratives within built projects. [1]