AIArchitect

As exaggerated pride or self-confidence, "hubris" seems an odd choice as a part of the title to this piece.

As the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for, "serendipity" seems closer to "luck" than to "the ability to capitalize on circumstance."

"Marketing" would appear to be a better term in the sense that marketing involves analysis of the market and trends, identification of opportunities, planning responses to opportunities that can/will occur and the like. "Self promotion" is advertising, not marketing.

Marketing (not advertising) would be an appropriate intern development topic. As a curricular matter, marketing might be better taught by a business school.

Are you kidding? Rampant self-promotion has been integral to high-profile designers since my first college design studio. Everyone knows of and/or has worked for firms that structure their entire practice and self-image around schmoozing the press and award programs and designing to get published as though that is their real purpose in life, and only chumps worry about satisfying clients and society's building needs.

Things have changed in the 20 or so years I've been working with architects on marketing communications ( including, but not limited to, publicity and promotion.)

Still, anxiety lingers about whether promotion equals ethically repugnant hype (morally repugnant hubris comes up less often.) And a few principals still regard marketing communications as a dreary, obligatory function best cordoned off somewhere near the mail room.

Education? We need to look less at architects and more at journalists (who are, like us, underpaid professionals burdened with deadlines and high ethical standards) and their publics. Two observations. neither original:

- Over time, journalists turn to people who provide complete, factual information and sources on a timely, reliable basis. This is the antithesis of hype but the core of good media relations; it is also what successful architects already do for their lay clients. It helps if the information concerns something interesting, but at publication time a well-presented, well-photographed story about an ordinary project can trump a breathless, disorganized release about cutting-edge something.

- That said, journalism, for better or worse, looks for news. If a blog or magazine shows reader interest in "green" issues, it might be better to lead with your roof garden photo as opposed to your 10,000 word essay on how your design recapitulates Postmodernism. Serving a legitimate audience's interests is not hype, either.

With respect to Mr. Adams (above): for most firms informing and finding the people who can best use our services, i.e. marketing, now typically includes self-created media, publicity, and promotional and pro bono activities (but less often paid messages via ads.) Professional promotion can be a key to marketing, will probably not incur the wrath of Zeus, and for the time being, at least, is better learned in a successful architecture firm than at a business school.

Thanks to all for commenting on this odd blog. I tend to agree with Christopher Kirk's terse but accurate description of the architectural hype machine. Having seen many facets of architectural PR from the vantage point of small, medium and large firms, I have concluded that publication and awards go to those who intentionally and relentlessly cultivate those fields; in other words, architects who are as committed to publication and awards as they are to architecture. For those of us who feel underpublished and underawarded to complain about this circumstance is clearly just whining.
Mr. Miller's post (Hi, Robert!) sounds like it is torn from the Handbook of Professional Practice: cheery and idealistic, nearly all of his points should be preceded with the clause, "In a perfect world..." In the world we live in, if you want to get published, you get your publicist to book lunch with an editor at the Four Seasons. Otherwise, quit whining.

Hubris is not the right response to serendipity's call to action. Do respond, but not with hubris. Serendipity calls us to "shout from the mountaintops" with joy, not with cold calculation. Maybe "marketing" can be seen as a methodology for spreading joy.

Does the fact that the interior designer is black have any relevance at all to this piece?