Ideias do Futuro, an architectural firm based in Lisbon, Portugal, has recognised that their clients increasingly demand technical drawings as well as photographic quality concept designs.
“In our industry there has been a marked change in terms of image quality,” says Goncalo Santos Carvalho, senior architect and IT manager at Ideias do Futuro. “Before, photographic quality was not such an issue, but now all project renderings are photo quality.”
The HP Designjet T1200 printer offers Ideias do Futuro the capacity to create high impact concepts and sharp, accurate construction drawings through every phase of a design and build process. The additional revenue has made the firm’s business more resilient throughout the recent credit crisis, giving them a head start over competitors as government packages start to have an impact on infrastructure investment worldwide.
Meeting the challenges of modern architectural processes
“We work on all types of architectural projects, from smaller scale projects such as residential buildings to large urban planning projects,” says Carvalho. “In today’s market, we need to be in a position to exploit all the opportunities we can.”
Pedro Goncalves, architect coordinator at Ideias do Futuro, highlights some challenges a modern architectural studio faces: “Clients expect a lot more from us today and projects have become very much of a team job,” he says. “There is an enormous amount of information to be managed, shared and updated all the time. The Internet and email provide us with the speed and capacity to expand our market, but printing remains a critical part of our work. The printed image conveys our vision, our concept. It reflects our skill and ability to complete important projects.”
Better quality at a faster speed
The increasing exchange of information among team members, clients and peers collaborating on projects requires tools that simplify and speed up processes while ensuring that shared data is accurate and reliable. “Jobs are processed much faster at our studio than with our previous printer and we get the print-outs sooner than we could ever have imagined,” says Carvalho. “For line drawings we use the fastest print mode available and the quality is far better than the normal mode on our previous printer, which means that we’re getting better quality at a faster speed.”
“The two roll option is also really convenient and saves us time and money,” he adds. “We can load two different types of media, so there are no interruptions to change media when one team is printing line drawings and another is printing renderings. Alternatively, we can economise on paper usage by loading two different media sizes and the printer automatically selects the right size.”
A two-in-one printing solution
The HP Designjet T1200 printer is helping Ideias do Futuro to sell their creative ideas and then transform them into executive plans. “The Designjet T1200 does the job of two printers,” says Carvalho. “We print renders or 3-D images on HP Universal Instant-Dry Photo Gloss Paper and get exceptional photo quality, including a really impressive glossy black. For line drawings we use HP Universal Bond Paper for really fine lines and smooth curves. Everyone at the studio has noticed the line quality is so much better. The HP Vivera inks deliver colours that are absolutely accurate: Blacks are darker and really dense and colours and shades of grey are true.”
Ideias do Futuro can deliver even the most complex project anywhere and on time. “We recently printed seventy A0/E drawings overnight to meet the deadline on a landscape project in Africa, Carvalho adds. “We used the two rolls option and went home. Early next morning the job was completed. The small print and finest details were printed clearly and sharply and there had been no out of memory errors or any other problems. The landscape project was shipped to our foreign customer on time.”
“The exchange of ideas and information has become an essential part of the way our clients live and work”, Carvalho concludes. “We can now offer them a complete range of creative design services to satisfy their growing communications demands.”