How to Create an Architectural Façade That Makes an Impact

There's hundreds of ways to present an architectural project, after all, every project faces a different challenge, making it essential for the images to highlight the key aspects of the proposed solution.

In this post, we’ll explore how a project’s façade can become a powerful presentation graphic, one that communicates hierarchy, depth, and expression by integrating light, shadow, and materiality into a focused portion of the image. It’s a presentation method that not only grabs attention but also conveys meaningful architectural information at a glance.

The process starts with a clean elevation view exported from Revit. To complete the image, you’ll just need a photo editing tool (we’re using Affinity Photo) and a rendering engine (we’re going with D5 Render). This combination lets you create a compelling presentation graphic quickly and easily, without getting bogged down in a long post-production process.

This elevation will serve as the base of the illustration. Before exporting from Revit, there are a few key settings to configure to enhance the visual quality of the image:

✅ Turn on Cast Shadows: In this example, the sunlight is set to come from the top right at an angle of about 45 degrees. This helps emphasize depth and better suits the project’s character.

✅ Turn on Ambient Shadows: Enabling this setting adds subtle darkening at corners and edges, enhancing the expressive quality of the façade.

✅ Turn on Depth Cueing: This helps visually separate foreground and background elements. Notice how the access bridge on the left and the tree on the right appear in lighter tones, reinforcing spatial hierarchy.

✅ Use "Halftone" for Annotation Elements: Display levels, grid heads, and section markers in halftone. These annotations can support the image’s narrative, but they shouldn’t compete with the architecture itself.

✅ Be mindful of the Linework: Revit doesn’t apply line thickness variations in elevation views by default. Use line work overrides to manually emphasize primary and closer elements, this adds hierarchy and clarity to the drawing.

💡 Pro Tip: There are a couple of ways to tackle the challenge of adding line hierarchy. The first is using the Linework tool, where you manually select individual lines in the view and change them to medium or wide line weights. This method has the advantage of being linked to the geometry. So if a wall, floor, or beam is modified, the adjusted edge will update automatically. However, it also has some downsides: it can be difficult to manage or revise later, and it may result in incomplete or inconsistent linework if the base geometry changes significantly.

For this reason, we often recommend a second approach: using Annotation Lines to outline and emphasize key elements of the façade that require stronger visual hierarchy. This method usually offers greater control over the final output and makes it easier to adjust or fine-tune at later stages. We also suggest grouping these lines for easier selection and editing.

Each method has its place, choose the one that best fits your project’s complexity and goals. Once you configure the elevation, export it as PDF.

Now we’re ready to move on to the next step: generating two key render passes. The first is an ambient occlusion render, and the second is a materials render with the project’s materials already configured. We recommend using D5 Render, its community version is free and capable of producing impressive results, but any rendering engine of your choice will work. Make sure to configure a 2D view that matches the elevation from Revit, and export both images. For the materials render, don’t forget to include a Material ID pass, as it will make editing in post-production much easier.

Now it’s time to move into the photo editing phase—we’re ready to start overlaying the images and bringing everything together.

Start by opening the base PDF façade in your photo editing software. We’re using Affinity Photo in this case, but the same principles apply to most image editing tools. Once the image is placed, we recommend setting up guides to help align the additional layers accurately.

Next, place the ambient occlusion render on top of the base image and align it carefully using the guides. Set the blend mode to Multiply and adjust the layer’s opacity to around 70%. To enhance the effect, consider applying a Levels adjustment to boost contrast and brighten the image slightly. Notice that the vegetation in the ambient occlusion render was not included, as it may appear too dark for the final image.

Now it’s time to define the area that will be highlighted with color, texture, and materials. This technique gives the image a distinctive visual impact that immediately draws attention while communicating important information about the proposed materials and finishes. In this example, we’ve chosen a vertical section with a semicircular base, as shown in the image below. Feel free to experiment with different compositions, and apply a mask to define the desired visible area.

Since the background of the base material render is a dark gray, we’ve replaced it with a solid light blue to better complement the composition. These render layers are placed above the base image, using the Normal blend mode. Notice that we've differentiated the grid heads from the background.

For this illustration, we chose to mask the earth hatch to create a cleaner, lighter look. The area is filled with a soft, near-white color to reduce visual weight and maintain balance in the overall composition.

One of the key aspects of achieving this look is the line work. We duplicated the original façade PDF exported from Revit and placed it above the colored section of the image. The trick is to set the blend mode to Multiply and reduce the opacity to around 70%. This step really ties the composition together and reinforces that illustrated, architectural style we’re aiming for.

At this stage, the core elements of the image are already in place. From here, it’s all about adding subtle details that enhance the overall feel of the illustration. One of our go-to techniques is overlaying a light grunge texture across the entire composition to introduce a subtle, paper-like quality that adds texture and depth. We recommend using the multiply blend mode, and set the opacity to about 30%.

Finally, the last step is to add a background that complements the image and helps the architecture stand out through contrast. In this example, we’ve used an illustrated sky with clouds and tress in the horizon. You can experiment with different styles, anything from vertical line textures to subtle dotted patterns or even black-and-white illustrations, like the one shown here. Just remember to keep it simple so the background supports the architecture, not competes with it. 😉

So the final result should look something like the image below. We’re big fans of presenting our architectural projects through illustration. While we also produce photorealistic renderings, we believe there’s always a place for images like this—ones that communicate layers of information, stand out visually, catch the eye, and even spark conversation.

And in case you’re wondering, this project was designed by our architecture studio, @numen.arquitectos, as a private commission. We’re really happy with how it turned out! Let us know what you think — and feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about the process.