That “What would we do without it?” web site Wikipedia says a presentation drawing is used “to develop a design idea into a coherent proposal, to communicate ideas and concepts, to convince clients of the merits of a design, (and) to enable a building contractor to construct it...” Presentation Drawings are so much a part of our world, it’s easy to see why they wouldn’t get a lot of attention. But they are important, and it’s worth taking the time to talk about why.
Presentation Drawings as a Form of Communication
I’ve mentioned before the work of Edward Tufte, who has done a lot of research on the communication of information. In his book Beautiful Evidence he shows many examples of documents rich in information, containing little or no “fluff,” and provide the consumer the freedom to take in the information in their own way. One of Tufte’s favorite examples of this type of communication is the basic road map, which he points out is so good in part because “we’ve been perfecting it for several hundred years.” Like a roadmap, presentation drawings can elegantly communicate many different things in the same space.
What’s Being Provided
By showing location and labeling the products to be provided, a presentation drawing communicates what will and will not be provided. Takeoff sheets presented in a tabular format can describe the same information, but they cannot tell a customer ‘at a glance’ what areas will be framed and what, if any, are “by others.” With a quick look a customer can be reassured that the entire structure is going to be framed.
How the Framing Will be Done
The details of “how we are going to do this” are laid bare by the presentation drawing. This enables us to communicate, “We’ve got this figured out, and here is our proof.” It also provides the framer with a “how to” guide for setting the trusses.
Reveal the Assumptions We’ve Made
By creating notes and including section details, we can point out tricky framing situations and expose certain assumptions we’ve made in our framing design. This is crucial in order to avoid delays or misunderstandings during the erection process. It’s worth restating the obvious that pictures are better than words for communicating many things. For example, showing a picture of the cathedral truss spanning a given area is less likely to lead to a “surprise” for the customer than simply writing “volume ceiling” on the layout.
Who We Are
We can spell out what company did this work, who we are, and who you should contact if you have questions. By the quality of our work, we communicate how professional, how meticulous, how helpful we are. Alternately, we can communicate the opposite by presenting sloppy or inconsistent work. If your customer on one job receives a professional, complete presentation drawing on 24” x 36” paper and the next time receives a sloppy, incomplete layout on 8½” x 11”, what are they likely to think about your company? I might think, “Wow, the quality of the work I get from these guys really depends on which designer I get.”
Keep it Clean
“Fluff” is those things that, if we left them out, would not reduce the informational content. Avoid adding things simply to make the layout “pretty.” Color can be used to great effect to make information “stand out,” but it can be also used simply to make things look attractive. Color, like special effects in a PowerPoint presentation, can take attention away from the information. Let the information always have center stage.
Keys to Success
The Presentation Drawing is the most important piece of visual communication we provide with the order. It should be complete, detailed, and consistent. The elements, that is, “What we always include,” need to be understood by all. At a glance we should be able to tell if any one of these ‘essential’ elements is missing. Periodically, the list of elements should be reviewed, and new ones added if experience has shown that their inclusion may prevent problems from repeating themselves. You will inevitably have some people on your staff that are better at this form of visual communication than others. Take their natural abilities and incorporate their “art” into the “science” of creating presentation drawings that communicate the very best about your company to your customers.