Episode 01 - Image reading and Storytelling — with Paolo Zambrini
Today's guest is Paolo Zambrini, CEO of ENGRAM Studio, EIDO, and HERE. He's an industry veteran and one of the most influential people on the scene Italian archviz. His work is very well known even beyond national borders, and he has worked for top-tier clients such as Snohetta, MVRDV, and UNStudio. Paolo is deeply passionate about how images are born. We took a deep dive into the principles of image-making, and we discussed how we instinctually read images and what we should prioritize when creating one. We also discussed the notion of “storytelling” in our industry, the fashion of branding ourselves as “storytellers”, how storytelling interacts with the image reading… and why it’s not such a simple deal as “telling a story” More about Paolo and his companies. More about Paolo and his companies. ENGRAM Studio Website: https://www.engram.it Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/engram_studio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EngramStudio EIDO Website: https://www.eidovisual.com/ HERE Website: https://h3re.it/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_hereagency/ Timestamps [01:13] Greetings and episode introduction [03:21] Paolo introduces himself [07:54] What is the concept of image-reading? [11:25] Balancing between instinct and rules when working with other artists [13:01] The meaning of ‘storytelling’ in our industry [15:22] Perceiving vs. understanding an image - the process of reading an image. [16:32] The first reading – understanding an image with the primitive eye. [18:21] Why thinking that good images are all about storytelling is dangerous. [19:53] A distinction between architectural images and real estate images. [21:38] When should we use a strong storytelling-driven approach to architectural images? [25:03] About clients wanting to force storytelling and narrative into images. [28:34] The origin of the idea that storytelling is the most important thing in making an image [32:08] The Instagram Era is another proof of the fact that the first reading is everything [33:00] Why storytelling is still an important part of image-making, and what is good storytelling [37:00] Finding a balance and breaking the rules. [39:24] Conclusions, is branding ourselves as visual storytellers a good way to market our services to a potential client? [43:03] What inspires Paolo books, movies, and music