Talk with an old architect changed how I look at blueprints now

I was grabbing coffee last Tuesday and ran into a retired architect who used to work downtown. He noticed my rolled prints and asked what I was drafting. When I showed him a commercial remodel I was working on, he pointed out how I had all the structural notes crammed in one corner. He said back in the 70s they spread those notes across the sheet to force the eye to move around. It hit me that I've been treating my drawings like data entry instead of a map someone has to read. I've started spacing things out more and it feels cleaner but I wonder if I'm losing efficiency. Anyone else get feedback from old timers that made you rethink your layout style?

3 comments

3 Comments

lisa8391mo ago

Oh man, this hits so close to home. An old structural engineer I met at a hardware store told me my elevation callouts looked like I was trying to hide them from the contractors. He showed me an old set of his and every detail was almost spread out like a story on the page. I switched to leaving breathing room around notes and it changed how I catch mistakes because I actually see the whole drawing now. The old way was definitely faster to produce but the new way is way faster to build from.

ivan_hayes291mo ago

Yeah but is it really slowing people down when they're trying to find stuff fast? Spreading notes out looks nice but I'd rather have everything in one spot so the crew can glance and move on.

troy9961mo ago

Whoa, that's a really good point about catching mistakes. I get what the old architect was saying about the eye moving around, but ivan_hayes29 brings up a solid thing too. For you, lisa839, after you started spacing things out, did you notice the contractors actually coming back to you with fewer questions on the first walkthrough? I'm curious if the tradeoff in efficiency on your end paid off in less time spent explaining stuff later on.