Special Guest Piranesi impresses SAI at its annual AGM, but potentially makes their membership approval process more challenging

 

For a software product that professes to offer its users the ability to create artist’s impressions, there can be no greater test than to be subjected to the critical eyes of the Society of Architectural Illustration.  So when Piranesi received a very warm reception from the members and committee of the SAI at its Annual General Meeting recently, it represented praise indeed for Informatix Software, Piranesi’s creators.

Used by architects, designers, landscape architects and architectural illustrators around the world, Piranesi produces computer-generated artist’s impressions that look hand-rendered: soft, subtle watercolours, sketches, even traditional engravings.  In the hands of one without artistic training, Piranesi can effortlessly produce impressive visualisations from 2D and 3D CAD models, but in the hands of a skilled artist, the results can be truly awe-inspiring, and several of the Society of Architectural Illustration had already been impressed by the user gallery on the Piranesi website at www.piranesi.co.uk.

And they’re not easy to impress.  Founded in 1975, the SAI has hundreds of members in the UK alone and has spawned similar organisations around the world.  Whilst its primary objective is to encourage the use of architectural perspectives and models as a vital part of the communication process between architects and their audience, the SAI also values its role as figurehead of a discipline where excellence of illustration is a pre-requisite.   This means that a strict, critical assessment is carried out on every applicant’s work, and not everyone makes the grade.

Walking into the AGM to present Piranesi’s capabilities, Informatix’s marketing manager Jeremy Jones admits to a few nerves:

“I was always absolutely confident that Piranesi’s creative abilities to convert plain rendered models or elevations into stunning visualisations would impress the members of the Society,” he said. “Thankfully they forgave any creative naivety on my part and focused on Piranesi’s extensive range of tools that mirror their traditional methods, such as configurable ‘paintbrushes’, and real-world paint effects.

For many years, the architectural software industry was obsessed only with making the most photorealistic images possible, but that’s often not what either an architect, or a client, wants to see, says Don Coe, the SAI’s chairman.

“The problem with photorealism is that it disengages the client’s imagination from the project – the client presupposes that all design decisions have been made, from the exterior finishes to the door handles, and occasionally is disappointed if the real building differs even slightly.  With non-photorealistic images, the client’s focus can be drawn to just the features of the design that are important, and allows the architect to effectively gloss over elements that are yet to be determined.  From an architect’s point of view, if the visualisation is stylishly presented, it reflects well on the artistic creativity of the project. Photorealism simply doesn’t compare.”

From what he’s seen of Piranesi, Don Coe is happy that Piranesi offers a good computer-generated option for traditional illustrators:

“Piranesi is the first application that I’ve seen that successfully mimics both traditional paint styles and methods.  It seems to be easy to use, and the results it delivers are very impressive.”

But as the SAI’s chairman points out, Piranesi causes something of a problem too:

“Our selection criteria for membership are quite strict, and illustrators have to demonstrate great technical ability and artistic flair.  Increasingly, the capabilities of software products like Piranesi are becoming so artistically proficient that it’s becoming difficult to spot what’s been done using standard software out-of-the-box (without any bespoke settings) and what has been the result of true illustration skill.”

A 30-day free trial of Piranesi is available to download from www.piranesi.co.uk.

About Informatix Software International Limited

Informatix Software International Limited was founded in 1997 to develop software for the architectural, engineering, construction, and facility management industries.  Based in Cambridge, England, Informatix sells its products across the globe through an international network of distributors and online via its website. Informatix maintains strong links with Cambridge University, and has collaborative agreements with a number of best-in-class technology developers.

Contact address:
Informatix Software International Ltd, 509 Coldhams Lane, Cambridge, CB1 3JS, UK
Tel:       +44 (0)1223 246777    Fax:       +44 (0)1223 246778

Macworld UK nominates Piranesi 5 for Mac as Creative Design Software of the Year 2008

 

Leading UK Mac magazine Macworld has nominated artist’s impression software Piranesi 5 for a prestigious award:  Creative Design Software of the Year. 

“The launch of version 5 for Mac in December 2007 was a major technical step forward for Piranesi, with major improvements to the UI, additional context-sensitive tools and help, and most importantly it’s our first Universal Binary product, allowing it to run natively on the new generation of Intel Macs” said Jeremy Jones, Informatix’s Marketing Manager. 

Macworld’s reviewer, Nick Spence, praised Piranesi highly in the March edition of the magazine, calling version 5 ‘a worthy upgrade’, and found the apparently hand-rendered results that can be achieved through Piranesi’s extensively-configurable painting tools and effects ‘compelling’ and ‘impressive’.

Up against some real software heavyweights in its category, Jeremy Jones is proud to have received the nomination, regardless of whether Piranesi picks up the gong.  “The nomination,” he said “is a dual endorsement: primarily of the excellent performance of Piranesi as a creative design tool; and also of the wonderful team of developers we have at Informatix.  It’s a great achievement.”

The winners are announced at the Macworld Awards Ceremony at the IndigO2 in London on 12th June 2008.

About Informatix Software International Limited

Informatix Software International Limited was founded in 1997 to develop software for the architectural, engineering, construction, and facility management industries.  Based in Cambridge, England, Informatix sells its products across the globe through an international network of distributors and online via its website. Informatix maintains strong links with Cambridge University, and has collaborative agreements with a number of best-in-class technology developers.

Contact address:
Informatix Software International Ltd, 509 Coldhams Lane, Cambridge, CB1 3JS, UK
Tel:       +44 (0)1223 246777    Fax:       +44 (0)1223 246778

Informatix Software launches new website for Artist’s Impression software Piranesi which showcases customers as much as the product

 

We all know what to expect when a software company launches a new website: lots of dry product data, maybe some screenshots and definitely some text about how much it can change your working life.  Informatix Software’s bold new website for Piranesi is different.  For a start, wherever you look you will find breathtaking images that look hand-created - subtle watercolours, minimalist sketches, evocative pastels – all created not by Informatix’s marketing department, but by Piranesi customers, and credited with their names and company details.

You’d be forgiven for almost believing that this was a site to promote the architects, interior designers, landscape architects and illustrators that use Piranesi every day, rather than the software.  This unusual approach is designed to help site visitors quickly understand what Piranesi offers, says Jeremy Jones, Informatix’s Marketing Manager:

“Telling the story of Piranesi isn’t about showing extensive feature lists.  Anyone who reads the product information on the site will discover that Piranesi is a hugely powerful and flexible ‘3D painting’ tool with an amazing ability to create photorealistic and non-photorealistic images quickly and simply.

“But that’s what it is, not what it does.  The real message behind the product is simple: Piranesi enables our customers to create wonderful, stylish artist’s impressions of their design projects, which will genuinely wow their clients.  What better way to express that than by showcasing the illustrations themselves?”

Looking round the site, it’s clear that Informatix is rightly proud of how Piranesi customers are using the tool to win business in markets all around the world.  The central part of every page is always dedicated to a customer image, with most accompanied by a short passage about the image and its creator. 

If demonstrating Piranesi’s potential helps promote the individuals and firms who are submitting images, then Informatix is happy to assist, according to Jeremy Jones. 

“Our users are wonderful ambassadors for Piranesi,” he explains. “The website’s user forum is a great example.  Lots of customers share their latest images, seeking advice on little touches to improve their creative output still further, and most of that advice is provided by other users, rather than Informatix.  Showcasing some of those customers’ work is a little ‘thank you’ for that help, as well as a great way to illustrate the flexibility that Piranesi offers, as there’s a huge variety of personal styles on show.”

Of course, seeing what can be achieved by others, it’s impossible to resist the temptation to find out what you can create yourself with Piranesi, a thought actively encouraged by Informatix’s Marketing Manager:

“ Download the 30-day free trial, and have a go at producing a masterpiece.  To help you along the way, the site contains tutorial videos, screenshots, and support is always just an email away.  Submit your finished image to us and you might see it in the gallery, or even as a main page image.”

The new Piranesi website offers a huge amount of information, offers a chance to promote your skills and your organization, but most of all, it offers inspiration – it shows how Piranesi can help turn your plain-rendered concepts into visual masterpieces, capable of impressing the most hard-hearted of clients.  And that’s reason enough to visit the new site at www.piranesi.co.uk

About Informatix Software International Limited

Informatix Software International Limited was founded in 1997 to develop software for the architectural, engineering, construction, and facility management industries.  Based in Cambridge, England, Informatix sells its products across the globe through an international network of distributors and online via its website. Informatix maintains strong links with Cambridge University, and has collaborative agreements with a number of best-in-class technology developers.

Contact address:
Informatix Software International Ltd, 509 Coldhams Lane, Cambridge, CB1 3JS, UK
Tel:       +44 (0)1223 246777    Fax:       +44 (0)1223 246778

Informatix Software announces the release of Piranesi version 5 for Mac

 

The power of persuasion just got better for Mac users with the launch of Piranesi version 5 for their platform. Known as the ‘Graphical Persuader’, Piranesi is an exceptional artist’s impression tool designed to help creative teams around the world deliver breathtaking visualizations of everything from building and landscaping plans to product designs and animation storyboards.

For years, creative teams have been handed scraps of paper by their firms’ senior partners and told “We’re pitching this to the client tomorrow morning – give me an artist’s impression by this afternoon”, or a landscape architect has heard a client say “I just want something really ‘wow’ – can I see it tomorrow?”. And for years they’ve built a quick 3D model, exported it to Piranesi and quickly and easily painted it up with colour and texture, and applied and extensive array of effects, producing impressions ranging from the sharp, stark and monochromatically modernist, to the soft, subtle, watercolour with a believable hand‐painted feel.

For the Mac members of those creative communities, life will be getting significantly easier thanks to the launch of version 5 of Piranesi’s ‘Graphical Persuader’ for their platform. Already winning plaudits for its Windows version, Piranesi developer Informatix Software, expects its corps of Mac users to be equally enthusiastic about the new release, which runs on Mac OSX, from 10.3.4 right up to Leopard.

“Piranesi version 5 represents a big step forward for our Mac customers, with extensive functional enhancements and a wide range of UI improvements – plus it’s a universal binary, meaning that it will run natively on Intel Macs too,” said Simon Bennett, Informatix Software’s Product Manager.

“All changes are designed to help our customers produce even more creative results, in an even quicker timeframe,” adds Simon. “Piranesi is most frequently used at the initial concept stage of a project, where details are limited, and Piranesi’s strength is that its softer, suggestive impressions allow you to focus the client’s attention firmly onto the central elements of the design proposal.

“And for all our customers, time is a vital factor. The ability to convert rough 3D designs into powerful, persuasive visualizations of your idea quickly can often make the difference between the success and failure of a pitch.” Piranesi’s ability to paint in 3D accurately without needing masks, and its extensive ready array of creative filters combine speed and creative flexibility into a single, affordable package.

Jeremy Jones, Informatix’s Sales and Marketing Manager, noted the exceptional value for money offered by Piranesi’s latest release: “Version 5 sees another increase in the number of in‐built brushes, textures, multi‐fills, cutouts and effects to nearly three thousand, providing an extraordinary range of creative options instantly on hand for customers, offering even greater freedom of expression to produce breathtaking artists’ impressions.”

A 30-day trial version of Piranesi is available to download from the website at www.piranesi.co.uk.   Licensed in either single or concurrent user options, Piranesi version 5 for both Mac and Windows is available for £395 direct from the Piranesi website, or via Informatix’s global reseller network.

To download a trial version of Piranesi, visit www.piranesi.co.uk, or to request a demonstration CD, email info@piranesi.co.uk or contact Informatix Software on +44 (0)1223 246777.

About Informatix Software International Limited

Informatix Software International Limited was founded in 1997 to develop software for the architectural, engineering, construction, and facility management industries.  Based in Cambridge, England, Informatix sells its products across the globe through an international network of distributors and online via its website. Informatix maintains strong links with Cambridge University, and has collaborative agreements with a number of best-in-class technology developers.

Contact address:
Informatix Software International Ltd, 509 Coldhams Lane, Cambridge, CB1 3JS, UK
Tel:       +44 (0)1223 246777    Fax:       +44 (0)1223 246778