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CYBERSPACE DESIGN TAKES ARCHITECTS BEYOND THE WALLS
By Paula Dittrick, LocalBusiness.com
HOUSTON, September 6, 2001 (LocalBusiness.com) -- The burst of start-up, dot-com companies seeking to communicate with the public is pushing a trend toward hybrid creative agencies --- firms where traditional lines of distinction blur between advertising, public relations, architecture, computer programming and graphic design.
Two Houston-based licensed architects illustrate the trend, providing services from Website development to building and interior design, to logo graphics and electronic commerce consulting. They are Richard Buday, president of Archimage Inc., and Jerry Alexander, founder of Acumen.
Archimage started in the early 1980s designing office buildings, churches and restaurants. "As our computer skills expanded, we added computer graphics and imagery, animation, multimedia and Website development to our list of services," Buday told LocalBusiness.com.
Archimage has designed buildings for Time Warner Communications, office interiors for Compaq Computer Corp. and computer animation for The Walt Disney Co. and Nintendo as well as designing Websites for eCitySuites, CompuBank, GE Financial Networks and Ziff-Davis Publications.
"Architects are trained as visual problem solvers. That's why many of the world's best photographers, industrial designers, furniture designers, automobile designers and graphic designers have architecture degrees," Buday said. "We are trained in the art of arts, visual designers," he said of architects.
Jerry Alexander started Acumen three years ago with the idea of pursuing a broader approach to clients' design and their environment than simply designing the building. "Most of our clients call us a design agency," he said. Acumen develops concepts for its clients' building designs, interior spaces, overall images and brand identity.
"A client hires us to develop the Website, redesign the logo and plan their office interior," Alexander said. "We take a very broad look at companies and not just the architecture. For our client's customers, we impact everything that one would experience when visiting the client's building."
Acumen uses sketches to demonstrate its ideas to clients, Alexander said. "We designed the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Houston. Our role was not to oversee the building construction, but our role was to shepherd the identity of the business."
Both Buday and Alexander say it's hard to describe what their companies do. "We're all over the map. It's hard to describe what we do and who we do it for," Buday said, adding he takes a "holistic approach."
Alexander has developed marketing concepts for Ford Motor Co. and Coca-Cola as well as designing the Website for AskRed.com, which is going to launch in 60 days. Dr. Red Duke has developed a Houston health care company.
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Archimage was founded in 1983 as a multi-discipline design studio. Projects
include office buildings for Time Warner Communications, corporate interiors for Compaq
Computer Corporation, computer animation for Nintendo and The Walt Disney Company, CD-ROM
games for Knowledge Adventure, television commercials for Volvo, and Web sites for Ziff-Davis
Publications and Baylor College of Medicine. The firm has won more than 30 international
awards for its work.
Contact:
Jerald Reichstein, AIA
Archimage, Inc.
tel: 713.523.3425
email: jr@archimageonline.com
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