ABOUT ME
Sunday, December 12, 2010 ;)
(Updated 2013)
I created this website in the summer of 2009 while a student at Miami University of Ohio working towards a Master of Architecture degree. The original intention was to use the website as a means to communicate to my instructors the progress I was making on my thesis work. However, the site quickly turned into a place to upload all of my thoughts, work, and experiments, whether it had to do with thesis or not.
Before college, I lived most of my life in the corn fields of Northwest Ohio in the small town of Deshler (Look it up). After grad school, my wife and I moved to Boston, MA where I am now working for Paul Lukez Architecture.
While my background has always been architecture, I'm constantly experimenting with all things visual. I still post my photography and drawings as these mediums play a large part in my understanding of proportion, layout, composition, lighting, and many other factors that directly relate to architectural illustrations. At the end of the day though, it all comes back to architecture and architecture illustrations. It's my biggest creative outlet and what I live to do.
If you have suggestions or questions, please leave a comment or email me.
Still not enough? check out: MY DRAWINGS, MY PHOTOGRAPHY, MY THESIS
Reader Comments (144)
I like your work especially rendering techniques.. I have to pick up and brush up really soon. Thanks for your sharing thoughts and impressing work for inspiration! I'm currently studying architecture Year 2 in HKU.
Thanks Peggy, good luck at HKU.
the work was really very very inspiring ....
made me leave 3dsmax and start sketchup again
great work....:))
Hi, your videos really helped me in my photoshop editing. I am studying Landscape Architecture but your works inspires me. Keep up the GOOD WORK!
I have a suggestion for you. If living in Boston invest in a snow shovel !! HA How you doing Alex ??
Great work Alex. Great work...
i love your work. you really have a gift for presentation; your photoshop skills are amazing and portfolio was very impressive. keep up the website i would very much like to have regular visits to your new work.
cheers,
ryan
MArch thesis student
Great website Alex. I finished my Architectural technology degree last May and have since been updating my profile, enhancing university work etc and your site has helped a lot with the learning process. This website is by far the best I have come across. It is inspirational to see such amazing graphics and what can be produced with Sketchup.
Thanks for the interesting work and tutorials shared! I'm used to 3dsmax, but some of your tutorials make me want to get started with sketchup asap :D
Thank you for all of the positive feedback!
I love your website and your work! You are a talented and amazing person. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and tutorials. It's really helpful for me. :)
All the best for you!
thanks for all the work you've done for your website. iv just started my architecture degree and im completely useless with software. hopefully its going to change now :P cheers!
Thank you Wynn and T
this is my second day reading your blog its very interesting and helpful, i hope to see more of you in the future cheers from chiapas mexico
Awesome work Alex. I am a 3rd year Architecture student in India. Your photoshop tutorials were really helpful. keep up your good work.
All the very best for you!
Thomas
NIT Calicut
India
Thanks. Its great to get these comments from around the world like this
hey, i really like ur stuff, thanx for this wonderful blog !!!
all the best!!
I am second year student studying at the Birmingham School of Achitecture, UK. After spending hours searching the internet for ways in which I can present my work differently to others I came across your website. The tutorials are extremely informative and have helped me to develop my existing skills on programmes such Photoshop, Sketchup, etc and transform my work.
Thank you Alex for sharing your knowledge and wisdom with the world and just maybe one day my work may look just as good as yours. Who knows!!
Regarding the future of the site, have you thought about aiming it at students who can maybe learn from one another and share their knowledge through discussion boards and tutorial videos like the ones you made? Just a thought anyways.
All the best in the future,
Matthew
I must say, I am extremely impressed and inspired by the content of this site. I am getting my Bachelors of Architecture this May, which means I'm currently working on own thesis. You have been of great help, especially through your tutorials and graphic representations. It is amazing. Thanks a lot, and please, keep doing what you do and updating as often as you can, so young students/professionals like myself and others can learn from those who came before us.
Matthew,
Its interesting that you say that, because I have been thinking a lot about setting up a discussion section/forum for the site. I get a lot of questions through email that seem beneficial for all visitors to see. This is something I will look further into this summer when I have a little more free time. Thanks for the comments
Thanks Aaron and Lukas for the kind compliments as well.
Wow! Thanks for sharing your work and how to create nice presentations! They look amazing! I'm about to go into first year Graduate school at CCA in San Francisco, and I don't think I have the ability to create the graphics like the way you do! Thanks for your blog, it will help me tremendously! As I am trying to still figure out how to operate Sketcup and Photoshop properly. Gosh..now I'm worried that my work is going to be the worse as I'm about to start grad school.
Alex,
Thank you for sharing your amazing work! I am an architect living in Italy and unfortunately unemployed... but this motivated and inspired me again! Learning from it a lot. Keep up this excellent website and thank you again!!
Knowledge shared is knowledge parlayed. Thanks for keeping your site after your thesis, Alex. It is to me a source of inspiration and a springboard for experimentation as I guess you have done extensively to come up with all the work here. Your work is excellent. And yes, you will keep raising the bar.
i think you saved my final presentation! i have not finished everything yet, but your videos are EXCELLENT! and please keep going. your work is amazing!
Youre creations and tutorials inspire me alot.
I hope that we still can enjoy youre work in the future.
Just looking at youre work make me want to open kerky and photoshop and start trying. Even so much that, as an interiorarchitect in Belgium, I now want to study graphical design to further develop my skills.
Alex, really thank you!
Alex, Thank you for this wonderful web site and tutorials. I have learned a lot from your work. I too am an architecture student at the University of Idaho and am often too busy to research presentation/imaging ideas and your web site has become my 'go-to' for architectural imaging. This is a truly wonderful web site. thank you.
amy
Thanks everyone for such positive feedback. This is what keeps me going!
Alex first let me tell you I'm Portuguese and so my English may be a little bit bad.
Two years ago I graduated in Master Architect.
I just have to tell you that please never abandon this project (personal website). This is my source of inspiration in recent times. Never at any time I have evolved both in the 3D rendering, and especially as Photoshop when I discovered your wonderful website.
I love your work and how you develop your representation techniques. I follow the same almost religious way.
Thank you for sharing your experience. It is rare to find people with a mind so open and with the spirit of help that you have shown.
Few days left for the official launch of my website [www.azeromais.com] and hope to present some of my work based on your "tips and tricks."
Many many thanks
João Torres
from Portugal
Super website! very impressive stuff. thanks for being so generous with your work and techniques. how did you start this site?
Great work Alex.
Your renderings, tutorials and blog are awesome.
For me personally, your box-creations are the most inspiring. Lots of work, but what a result.
Also many thanks for the link to Alex Roman's The Third and The Seventh.
I am a teacher for adults in Photoshop, Autocad, and so on. I have a part-time job as a architectural draftsman in a major hospital in Belgium and work as a freelancer designing and making kitchens, bathrooms, dressings... Turning wood is a hobby for me. My father, who died the first of may this year, was an architect and fan of Van der Rohe, Rogers, Foster,.... So you see why I am interested in your work and the things you do and create.
Thanks for sharing,
Bruno,
Belgium
I am seriously in love with your work and your passion.
I study in Miami, FL. I wonder if I can catch up!
Bruno,
Im sorry to here about your father. The boxes were also some of my favorite projects to design and work on. I wish you luck in the future with all of your work.
Thanks to everyone else for such great compliments.
love your photoshop + skp trick
thx
Hey Alex,
u have a great portfolio ...like ur style of architecture........can u share live ur projects
i am an architecture student from india....i am looking for getting structural and spatial solutions through programs like grasshopper but have not been successful to a larger extend.....do u have any suggestions for me as to what i can do......Thank you
thx for all videos plz visit my blog and tell me what do you think http://nesscheikhali.over-blog.com
your work is so great! where was I when you first started this website!??! I graduated with a BArch in May of 2010 and I still cant make rendering like yours...(a little sad..I know). I noticed that your work changed alot in 3D rendring from Srping of 08 to Fall of 09. is that when you learned most of your stuff or am i just making a wild assumption. heck either way your work is great and your tutorials are very helpful! especially the advice on not using illustrator so much because it is too diagrammatic. can you beleive it but.. the professors actually encoraged us to use this so much that one semester i ended up with something that looked like a children's book.. lol. anyways keep on posting! thanks for everything!!
Hi Alex!
Thank you so much for sharing your work and your techniques on the website. I'm an architecture student from Morocco and I work with Archicad, sketchup and V-ray. I was always so frustrated because I was working so hard on my projects but the final renderings were not good no matter how hard I tried. I'm trying out your tips and techniques and I already adore the result! So thank you again!
PS: It's not just your final renderings that are great, the architectural quality of your buildings is also amazing! so congratulations!
I just had to say that your blog is wonderful and I enjoyed looking at all so much!!!! I have such a talented and super son-in-law.
ALL of your images and tutorials are extremely helpful to my bachelor graduation project. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Alex,
Great site and tutorials! I would like to invite you to join Presenting Architecture http://www.presentingarchitectre.com. Membership and listings are FREE! Also I would love to include your tutorials on the site.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Rob
Thank you for a great site with rich content. Keep ut the good work!
Hi Alex,
I just decided to follow all of your inspiring work. I love your dedication to Architecture, wish all the best for you.
Respectfully yours,
Miftah Arief
Hi, I am a third year student the university of texas, thanks for every thing you have posted, It is all great and has given me a lot of good ideas as well as a good amount of help in photo shop. I now plan to follow you as long as you have the site up.
Thanks again, C. Boyd
I have been watching every tutorial you make. You are a genius and I respect the hell out of you.
Some great inspiration as I plan on transferring soon.
Keep up the good work, we all greatly appreciate it.
Gerry
Muito bom!!! Me tornei um fã! Muita determinação e muito trabalho gratificante.
Faz muito do que gosto de fazer, espero aprender mais com este blog.
Obrigado
p.s.: try brazilian portuguese to translate! lol...
Giulianno Camatta
Hi Alex! I have been following your blog for a few months now... I have discovered it before starting my portfolio and it helped me so much to improve the graphical quality of my work! I think it's the first time that I showed someone my work without being insecure about it! and the first time that I'm really proud of it! I just wanted to thank you for sharing valuable information about graphical design on your blog. You are really helping and inspiring a lot of people!
@Miftah, boyd, Gery, Camatta & SaraS,
thanks for the kind words and taking the time to write me. I really appreciate it!
Alex,
All I can say is WOW... I've learned a lot from your tutorials. They are all helpful since I am studying architecture at University of Hawaii at Manoa. I am currently on my second year of seven years doctorate program. I really need these extra tips to help me advanced in my studio classes. Thanks a lot.
Much Aloha,
Phap Vu
SoA at UH Manoa
I'm currently a 4th year BArch student at UT. I came across this website through google and was very happy. Your tutorials are very clear and I can see this as a great tool for me to refine my presentations. Thank you!
Hey,
Congrats for the great blog. I will definitely follow it :)))