A company evolving from a living room in Zurich into an international architectural visualization studio, with a determined goal to bring ideas to life through high-quality atmospheric visualizations, aimed to inspire and stimulate the emotions of the spectators. This is the story of Nightnurse Images.
Coincidental Beginnings
It all started in a living room in Zurich back in 2008 where the three founders of Nightnurse Images were living together in a shared flat. Christoph and Christopher had just graduated from ETH Zurich, where Lutz was in the latter part of the process of finishing his degree. Before official founding, the company the three did visualization jobs as a ‘side gecheft’ to their day-time jobs and studies. And the whole affair actually started out rather coincidental, with the making of one single image.
“The short story is that we came across our first commission for a single interior image by coincidence. We were not very experienced in image visualization, but we were really just interested in the experience of what it was like. We decided to join the architects (the client) in their offices in order to be more reactive to their feedback. Contributing to long working hours during the night.”
When the image was submitted Christoph, Christoper and Lutz thought that this experience would go down in history as a solitary event. Therefore, they were taken by surprise when the architects returned with great satisfaction for the visual result, and additionally admiration for their enthusiasm. Because of this positive experience, the architects started telling their colleagues the story about ‘the crazy guys that worked all night’, which spread like rings on water and lead to more commissioned jobs. As jobs kept coming the workload grew more time-attentive. Christoph, Christoper, and Lutz decided to go all in, they quit their full-time jobs and in 2010 Nightnurse Images were founded.
The Nurses and the Offices
“It is kind of a funny thing, because many of the things that in the end has turned out to make us more successful, were forced on us in some way. One of our first employees was American – he is now our partner at our New York office – but because we had him we were enforced to get organized around a language.”
Today Nightnurse Images counts a headquarter office in Zurich, a branch office in New York and a 3D-modeling unit in Buenos Aires. The team constitutes of a perfect blend of architectural visualizers and 3D-modelers, originating from fields of architecture, interior- and industrial design, as well as the gaming industry.
The official corporate language is English. This is probably one reason for the dynamic and vibrant team constellation that includes employees (the Nurses) from all around the world. Additionally, meaning that languages spoken by the Nurses, besides English, includes; German, Swiss-German, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Serbian, Slovak, Czech, Greek, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Macedonian and Norwegian, just to give an impression of the diversity within the team.
“Most of our aspirational discussions about the company happened around the dinner table in our shared flat. During one of these talks, we fairly consciously decided that the corporate language should be English, in order to accommodate more people.”
Visualizing Architecture the Nightnurse Way
Nightnurse Images was at the beginning known for high-quality, soft-hued images, which both in color and light setting could be compared to paintings of the Romantic area. This mood is made purposefully to stimulate some sort of hyper-realism and awaken the spectator’s senses and imagination.
“The main goal for us is to make a space experienceable or tangible. Especially with architecture the way you experience a space is the most important. You can take a stab at this with an architectural model. However, with physical models you always have kind of a god-like point of view – approaching it from above looking from the outside in – were as with an image or a 3D model you are put into the setting, looking at it from a user- or spectator’s point of view.”
However, Nightnurse Images does an array of visual styles or moods, as they cater to clients of different needs and within different sectors of the industry. Specific image styles or visual expressions tend to be industry- or sector related. Architects intend to sell their designs. Thus, it is essential that visualizations made for architects touch the spectator’s imagination and stimulates her/his senses. However, especially in real estate marketing, the tendency leans more towards a desire for a more realistic visual expression, captured on an aesthetically good-looking day. Creating an image with a photo-realistic style and a mood that leaves the spectator with a positive impression, which is what you look for when you sell real estate.
“We are not that interested in blue skies, we can do it, but for us, the atmospheric qualities of design are the most important, so if we can create a more intense mood that underlines exactly that, then we would totally go for a rainstorm.”
Next year Nightnurse Images reaches a great milestone, as the company gets to celebrate its 10 year anniversary. Many things have changed since the company’s early days, however, one thing is still the same; the original trio is still standing strong. Christoph, Christoper, and Lutz are still a vital part of Nightnurse Images, and they get to celebrate themselves and the company next year, together with the great team they have established, partners and clients.
More information on this event: TBA.