Designing the Campus Retail Experience with nXtRender for AutoCAD!

Today we’ve connected with Randy Stejskal, founder of Campus Store Design. CSD is based in Lincoln, Nebraska’s state capital. Situated in the south east corner of the state, what was founded as the village of Lancaster in 1856 was renamed Lincoln in 1869, after President Abraham Lincoln, and in that same year the University of Nebraska was established.

American Football College Game Night in Lincoln - Go Big Red!

Hello Randy, please tell us a little about your business
Campus Store Design collaborates with universities to develop their on and off-campus retail stores. Through this collaborative design approach, universities are able to offer their students first-in-class retail shopping, which in turn generates additional profits from them purchasing more. These profits help the universities fund and create the best university experience for their students, and faculty and staff benefit too.

What sets your business apart from your competitors in your niche?
Certainly, our use of nXtRender sets our business apart from all of our competitors. Many project stakeholders with who we are engaged do not typically read blueprints on a daily basis. Offering photorealistic renders allows a visual like no other. Not to be cliché, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

What are some projects you’ve completed recently? A few of our recent projects include a convenience store at Yale, a fan shop at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and a deli at Cowley College. Each was unique, and each uniquely served visually via nXtRender. Here are a few of the renderings we’ve generated to accompany the corresponding project proposals (see these and more at http://campusstoredesign.com/renders).

University of Louisiana at Lafayette (1)

University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2)

Cowley College Kansas - Deli (1)

Cowley College Kansas - Deli (2)

University of Pittsburgh – Johnstown Book Center

Have you received any feedback from your clients on your rendered designs?
Absolutely! No question about it. They love the renders. It’s always an “ooh, aww!” moment for our clients when we present our Design Review for their project. Same goes for when CSD is an invited guest presenter at national industry conferences across North America.

When did you start using nXtRender for AutoCAD and why?
We hopped onboard with nXtRender as soon as it hit the market. We wanted to embrace the technology to best serve our clients. It really set CSD apart and we’ve been using it ever since.

What do you like about nXtRender? Are there any features in the software that you find especially useful?
Ron Eddy, our Engineer, is responsible for rendering. He’s been using nXtRender for many years and is still learning new and useful features, but he really likes nXtRender’s multi-level material definitions, the ability to pull graphics from several sources, mixing and texturing as needed, and the excellent control over reflectivity and glow of objects. Also, the lighting channels allow him to fine-tune during rendering, or after the rendering is completed.

Highly visible branding is very important to our clients, so it’s essential to be able to incorporate their brand in our presentation to them. Ron is able to easily incorporate graphics before the rendering process and has built a library of these graphics that enable their use on multiple projects.

There are times where we just need to setup quick and share an idea for discussion, while other times we need as close to reality as possible. nXtRender gives us the flexibility to do both and everything in between.

What elements do you pay most attention to when you render an image?
We set our cameras so that any image we produce is “magazine cover” worthy. We also like to do “before and after’s”. Those are also “ooh and aww” moments for our clients. Here’s an example of a photo we took of an existing area followed by the rendered design transformation.

Cowley College Deli – Existing Space Photo

Cowley College Deli – Rendered Design Proposal

Thank you, Randy! We’re pleased to hear that nXtRender continues to serve your business effectively and we’ll look forward to seeing more of your rendered designs in the future!

Checkout Campus Store Design's website
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