The studio
A studio built on accuracy.
Blockout Digital makes architectural imagery for developers and architects. Our HQ is in the West Midlands and we keep a studio in London — so you get national reach and a single, direct point of contact, wherever the scheme is.
The founding advantage
Three disciplines, one visual language.
Very few studios combine all three of these. It means a scheme can go from planning submission, to sales imagery, to an interactive walkthrough or a built environment — without changing supplier and without the visual language falling apart.
Architectural CGI
Planning and marketing imagery built accurately from your drawings — the core craft the studio is known for.
Real-time & game engines
Interactive walkthroughs and configurators, produced at a price the mid-market can actually reach.
Physical spatial design
An exhibition and experiential background, so visuals account for how a thing actually gets built.
Why “Blockout”
The name is where the work begins.
In CGI, a blockout is the grey massing model — the untextured stage where a building is only its geometry. It is the least glamorous part of the process, and the most important. If the blockout is wrong, no amount of light will save the image.
We took the name because it is where we are most disciplined. We resolve the truth of a scheme — its scale, its footprint, the exact view from the exact point — before we allow it to become beautiful. The render is earned, not applied.
How we work
From massing to money shot.
01
Model & massing
Every project starts as a blockout — an accurate grey massing model. Nothing is dressed until the geometry is right.
02
Camera & accuracy
Cameras are matched to survey data and agreed viewpoints, so the view is defensible before it is ever beautiful.
03
Light & materials
Then the craft: the hour, the sky, the materials and the interior glow that make the scheme feel inevitable.
04
Render & deliver
Stills, verified views and walkthroughs delivered from one coordinated source, ready for planning and for sale.
How we behave
Dependable, on purpose.
Accuracy first
Geometry is built from your data, not eyeballed. Where a project touches planning, the methodology is documented and defensible.
No surprise invoices
The quote states what's included and what isn't. Extra revisions are priced up front, so you see the cost of a change before you make it.
One point of contact
One person owns your project and you talk to that person. No account-manager layer, no relayed feedback.
Deliver early, or say so early
A slipping deadline is a phone call the moment it's known, not an apology the day it was due.
The founder
“When you commission Blockout Digital, you work directly with me — the person making the images. No relayed feedback, no layers, just a straight line between what you need and the work that gets done.”
Craig Ormston
Founder — a 3D artist with over ten years in architectural visualisation, exhibition design and real-time game engines.
Who we work with
For the people who have to get it built.
- Residential developers
- Mixed-use & regeneration
- Architects & design teams
- Masterplanning consultants
- Cultural & civic clients
- Exhibition & experiential agencies
Start a conversation
Let's start with the blockout.
Send us the model, the massing or just the site. We'll tell you honestly what it needs to be seen at its best.