Interior Designers: Mood Boards vs 3D Rendering
3D Visualizations are no longer optional.
There was a time when 2D architectural drawings, a mood board and your powers of persuasion were all you needed to secure that new project.
Unfortunately that time has passed.
Far too many young & tech-savvy residential interior designers are employing fully 3D renders to help prospective clients buy into their interior designs. Even if those designs are inferior to yours.
In this episode of the Interior DesignHer podcast, I chat with Jessica Lacerda, founder of Be & Live 3D. Jessica works with interior designers around the world; creating 2D and 3D visualizations that help win home renovation projects. In this episode, Jessica reveals the mindset shift that's separating residential interior designers who use 3D renders to win projects from those who…don’t.
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Key Takeaways:
Presentation technology determines project wins: Clients choose experiences over expertise when both options meet their design needs, making 3D visualization essential for competitive positioning
Cultural expectations are shifting rapidly: In jessica’s home country of Brazil, 3D visualization is considered mandatory for professional credibility - North American expectations are moving in the same direction
Client confidence drives design decisions: Visualization allows clients to trust designer recommendations they might otherwise reject, leading to better design outcomes and fewer revisions
The process is simpler than expected: Designers provide floor plans, measurements, and specifications while visualization partners handle the technical execution, making adoption accessible
Partnership approach maximizes results: Working with specialized 3D artists creates better outcomes than trying to develop these skills in-house, allowing designers to focus on their core expertise
Investment pays for itself: Visualization services become line items in project budgets, with costs passed directly to clients who value the enhanced presentation experience
Read the Transcript:
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Jessica, could you tell me a little bit about your expertise as a 3D artist and as an architect and what led you to start your business?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes, thank you, for, for having me. First of all, it's a pleasure. I. I'm very excited to talk about all of this subjects. My name is Jessica, how you say? And I'm an architect. I'm from Brazil, and I work with 3D since, college days. And I love all of these things. And I work for five years in, a business. They teach software, they teach sketchup for another, architects and designers. And in this place I learned a lot. But I think I need so much. You know, I want more and I want to help another client, another persons. And in this moment, I created my business, the Be and Live 3D and now I help other people, professionals to improve their visualizations. The presentations, and that's it. And this is, this is what I do right now. I help the people to improve the presentations. Okay.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: For an interior designer who's never, played with 3D visualizations before, can you kind of describe what's involved, benefits they can get from using this technology?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Sorry, how, how the, Well, there's
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: lots of designers who've never used, 3D visualization before. So kind of wanted, if you could kind of paint a picture, what it's like, what would they get out of it? Why would they want to use 3D visualization in their business?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: How can they can use the, the 3D? Right. So, the 3D. It's, we have a lot of things we can do with the 3D. Some of my clients use for the concept and some of them use for the final presentation. So, some clients use for, in the first views, to choose some material, some colors, because sometimes the client have many issues, you know, and we can use the 3D to understand this space better, to understand if, if the sofa is gonna match in the space or the colors. But, oh, I think, 80% is for the color and materials. We can, we can understand better how we can put all these things together. All this, all we can choose together, you know.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right. Can you maybe explain, like a little bit difference between a designer who maybe is used to doing, 2D presentations to their clients, like with either sketches or professional drawings, and then maybe a mood board, what's that next level that 3D do?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: I think the big difference is, how, the client has more confidence with you, you know, because they can understand that they doesn't have our vision, our imagination, our background. So they can see it before the, the construction, before the, before the, the project will be done. So this is a big deal. I, I, I like to tell, to, to tell for my clients, Zaha Hadith, for example, use the 3D renders. In so many years, 10 years ago, Zahra did use 3D handlers. So why not? Why, why? We can, so why we don't use it? Why? Why? You know what I mean? Because.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: No, no, I, I, no, no, go ahead. Well, I, I was assuming. Sorry, I, I was assuming that the number one reason they don't use it is cost. Because if they already, you know, they've got somebody to do their technical drawings for them, and then they've got somebody maybe in house to put together a mood board, and that's worked for years but like you said, other designers have been using 3D and, you know, sometimes you have to change. Right?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes. This is an interesting point of view because here in Brazil, everyone used everyone. Yes. Yes. This is a thing. If you don't have it, you are. You are not a good designer. You, you can do, an a, high. You can have a high quality 3D or not. But you need to have it. You can use it. Yeah. Or not, but you need to have it in your presentation. It's a thing. You need to have it. So for me, it is not, they don't have this problem here, but I understand that in other countries they have this difference of, thoughts about the 3D.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, no, I, I would agree. Yeah. Yeah, There definitely is, here in North America, there definitely is some resistance. Firms that are. Firms that are a bit more established and, and have more money to invest in the technology. They're definitely investing in the technology. And I've talked to some younger designers who have started out, and they're going into it right away. They're. They've never done, like, presented 2D sketches and mood boards. They went straight to 3D visualization. But I think there's those people in the middle who maybe they've been in business for five, ten years, but they've. They've never tried this. And, maybe could you tell a story of a designer, they started working with you and had never done visualizations before and, and how they felt.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: I think most of my international clients, when the first time. Have. The first time with me. Yeah, with the 3D, of course. And, I had recently, I have, a client. We. We don't. We don't, we are not gonna do with the 3D handle for the. This space. But the clients have a big issue with the colors of the space because for her is. Is too dark. And we do the renders. And she changed her mind.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Oh, wow.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes. And she choose a dark color for the guest room because the guest room will be a light color. And when she saw the renders for the other rooms, she said, okay, I can trust you and I can choose. And I want to choose a dark, color for this another room.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So you actually helped change the design.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes, yes. And my clients, the designer has the confidence to, show that the colors is going to work. This is my job. I know what I'm doing. How can we prove it? With the handler and 3D, we can simulate the light so we can see how the color is. Is going to be in the space.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: My wife is a designer, and I've heard, over the phone numerous times when she's talking to clients and she's painting this picture to them of what that space is going to look like. And she is fantastic at that. Like, I am able to understand what she's doing, and I have zero skills in terms of interior design. But I think you're right. Having that image there and being able to see it. I mean, if you can change a designer's mind, you definitely. Yeah. So you're almost more like a. Like a business partner than just a.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes, exactly. Exactly. When. When I create the BM leave, I don't want to. I don't want to be a freelancer. You know, I want to be a partner. And this is the difference in my work, in what I'm doing right now.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Getting back to your business, specifically, how many, international clients do you have? What's the. The. The split for you?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: I. I have three clients, like a fixed client and in clients right now, this month I attend. I will serve maybe six, six or seven clients, international clients and two Brazilian clients.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, that's interesting. Yes, that's interesting. So, the. Those clients that you do have, whether Brazilian or international, are they more experienced designers or where would you kind of place them?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: I have. I have the both in Brazil. They are, young. Young people, young woman. I work, Most of my clients are women's. So here, in Brazil, they are young. But in the. My international clients, they are more experienced. They have more experience in the. In the market even. Some. Some clients, they are. Are more. Older, but they, they have a new business. You know what I mean? Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Nope, I do.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: It's not a. It's not a, It's not, How can I say that? It's not. The vision is not, So long.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: You know, they haven't been in business. They haven't been in business very long.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, that's. I mean, yeah, maybe that is the case. Right. Like, people who are a little bit newer to this are more. It's. It's not making a big change for them.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes, right. Yes.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Which kind of leads into another topic I wanted to talk to about is artificial intelligence and designers. It's a big topic amongst designers right now. There's the threat of, I mean, everybody. Right. Everybody's thinking, am I going to be replaced by AI? Right. And, I definitely want to get your point of view, but first let me kind of set it up. I, my belief is that AI will obviously replace a ton of tasks. Whether that replaces the entire job, you know, or just makes us or more efficient is another thing. But I also wonder if with designers who are dealing with a more luxury client and interior design is a luxury service. It doesn't really matter. It's always. It's expensive for everybody.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: But if I can do, if I can do your job or a Designer's job, maybe 80% or 90% is good, that's fine for some people. But if you want something special, if you want something unique and interior design is unique. Right. It's my home. You're designing something for me. I think we can almost frame the human element like what you do as that extra special luxury touch that we all want. Sorry, I was, that was a bit of a long rambling thing. But.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: No, it's okay. I think the word here is precision. They don't have this yet. They need our touch, our human touch. Right. Our background, our experience, our skills. I, I like to talk, the AI is the body, I think, and we are the soul. And it's not, the AI is not our ideas. The people have this point of view about AI. Oh, the AI is going to create something. No, we are creating something. It's just a tool. So I have this idea. I think people, my clients use AI for concept and they say to me, they sent to me the images creating by AI but they, they, they look for me for my service because they don't have the precision with AI And I think the future is going to be, this is going to change of course because the thing is going to be innovating. But we are. The AI needs us and not the other way around. Yeah. Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Well, I am 100 gonna steal that idea of how humans are the soul. AI can be the body or the brain, but the humans are the soul. I love that. That's fantastic. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I, and I definitely think though that my, my main concern with it right now, and I'm a huge fan of AI but though if you're, if, if you're using it in your, in your work. Right. And if that means the AI is learning from you. Right. And then you will be training it. So I think we're going to run into that problem. I mean there's lawsuits now. I mean there was a, there was a group of authors suing anthropic who has the Claude, AI because the Claude had scraped all of their writing and so they anthropic settled out of court because they didn't want to go to court and you know, and they don't deserve to, to know what, you know, you've worked hard to get skilled at doing. Right. All of this stuff, we don't want to give that away to the AI. So I think we're going to run into that problem of private versus public.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes. And I don't think we have a big deal yet. You know, we have the boom of AI, but it's the same thing in different ways. We have the nano banana recently from the Google creating images. We have this. We already have this. It's better. Of course, it's very good. But it's the same thing. We don't have a big deal yet. I think we don't have it yet. It's my opinion but I don't think we have a big boom, with the AI. We have this, the AI came for us and oh my God, what is this? We don't have, we don't have jobs anymore. We don't have our jobs anymore. But I think it's not, it's not the way I think we have our jobs for so many years.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: That's good. If I was, a designer who had never done 3D visualizations and I contacted you, can you tell me what that process would be like, what you would, what you would ask from me and what you would and how you'd guide me through the whole thing?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes, of course. It's very simple actually. Like I said before, I am a partner. So what I can do for you, so I don't want it too difficult for you. So you just need to send me the measurements, you can send me the floor plan or just drown by hand and put the measurements and send to me the specification. That's it. I, I do the magic. All the magic, all the hard work. Yes.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: How much back and forth would happen, like how many revisions and yeah.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: The time, depends of the, the size of the project. But for interiors, maybe four, four or five days, you know.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: It's very fast actually. Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: And simple because it's my job is do it simple for you, is make it easier.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So if I was to present you with, with like detailed drawings and then some ideas and, and maybe and then like furniture choices and lighting and the more I give you, does it make it easier?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes, yes, of course I can Understand your project, you know, because I need to understand your vision too. I, I need to trans. My goal is to transform your idea in a visual thing and I need to understand what details to what you want to highlight too, because this is make difference to, to set the scenes, because this is another thing that I can do. My joke is I am a virtual photographer, but the scenes in what you want to highlight, we want to sell your project in the end of the day. So this is what I want to do with your idea when you send the material for me. I want to do this. Sell your project. Sell your idea.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So it's, it's. I mean for you to deliver the best possible product. It's, it's more than just dimensions. It's, it's under understanding all of that vision that the designer has and maybe know about the client a little bit like the homeowner and all that kind of stuff, right?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I'm guessing, I'm guessing this is why you've got repeat clients. Because once you've established, you know, a relationship with the designer and now you kind of understand what they're about, it gets easier with each project.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes. And it's a lonely path too. So we have a friend with each other lonely. So we can talk about the project, we can think about ideas and you know, talk about the day. Create a friendship.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. As I mentioned earlier, I would say that probably the best, the biggest roadblock to a designer using, a service like yours is going to be price. Do you ever get that discussion and maybe, you know, can speak to return on investment or you know, from past clients.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: What, what I tell to my clients is to what, what do we do to, to be in the budget. It's do the quote before, before the. We talk to the client. So my clients, in introduce my price in the project. This is the way my clients do. It's, it's a. I think this is the best way because you don't have any surprise in the future.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: No, it's a, it's a line item like anything else.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes. And my fixed client has the price, has access to my prices, so they don't need to consult me. For example, they oh, okay, I have this. I want five images. So they just know the price already because I create, a spreadsheet for them and they can put the number of images they want and have a quote, automatic quotes to, to the client. Oh, cool. Yes.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay. So when it comes to a designer presenting, say it's a, a design concept that you've done for, for me and I want to present it to my homeowner client. How would that work? Like, would I just like pull up the file on my iPad or.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes. Some people present with the mood board. We all have already the presentation. Right. The architect and designer have the. I talk about artists because here in Brazil the artists, the interior design too. So this is why I talk about a lot about architect too. But. And they have their presentation ready to show the clients the chooses the mood board, the colors, etc. And in the final they can put the hander images and the images not just for presentation, the images and you can use the images for portfolio for social medias. It's a great way. If you don't have a project, a real project, you can use handler. It's a good way to start your business, to share your new business too, your portfolio, etc.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I actually advised two young designers recently about that. They had worked for a company for years. They were not allowed to share, their input when they started their new company. And I said, okay, well how about this? How about you do two or three designs that you're really, really happy with, get them properly rendered and, and start using that build. Use that on your website, use that on your social media. Right. You're not saying this is a, it's not a built design, but this is, this is what I can pull out of my brain. This is what I want to do for you.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes, yes. And sometimes you, you, you can get realistic images, you know, so you don't have to tell, oh, it's a hander, it's my project and the clients can understand how they want.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. There's also a big difference in terms of you, you brought up the term quality of renders. Like I've seen people share renders that they really do look like a 1980s video game versus other ones that are like, is that a picture?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes. Yes.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So what's, what's involved with making that something that amazing?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: It depends on the software first of all. And the skew. I stood this, I don't know, about eight years practicing, practicing, practicing. So, this is another thing. A designer can choose, my service because they don't have this type. They don't have eight years.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Oh yeah.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Face someone to do for you and not just for hander, for another things too. But you don't have eight years to practice a lot. So it depends on the software and Practice, I think.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. So even if a designer had access. To the exact same software. Yeah. With AI, I think this result is going to be, we don't have to practice so much because the AI can help us. I use AI to enhance my images. So the new people, the young people, they're studying right now.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: If you are Sad to studying 3D handler right now, you can use the AI to enhance your images and have incredible results in a short time.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: That's cool. Would you mind, sharing the software that you use right now?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes. I use SketchUp for 3D modeling. Vray for handler. I use Korea AI to enhance my images. There's another one a magnificent. I forget the name. The Nano Banana 2. I was setting right now. I am testing right now. Banana Banana Of Google and I use Photoshop. So I am a photographer at the end of the day.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And Photoshop is putting a lot of, AI in their product as well.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes, yes, yes. Too. Yes. But, but I, I do some, enhance of the images in the better, contrast. You know, like a photo.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, okay. Kind of tying into the AI stuff. I've always had this dream with, with 3D renders that at. Someday we're going to have. And I don't think it's going to be the goggles. It's going to be like those, those Ray Ban meta sunglasses kind of thing. And you'll. And you'll be able to like literally walk through what your house is going to look like in the next six months or whatever. Right.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Oh my God.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Am I being realistic?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: I am excited for this. I'm waiting. This, this is the, turnaround that I don't see yet. Yeah, we can, we can do this yet. So we, when we can do this, I think it's going to be like.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Could you imagine that?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes. Yes. I mean, because constructing a house or doing a reno, it's a big deal. Involve a lot of money. So have these tools. Can you imagine this? Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: No, I do.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Put all your money on this. Oh my God. This, this is the reason. I don't understand why we have people there that use a 3D yet. Because we can, we can save a lot of money and time too because the clients don't have change anything.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Like if you have to like sell your job because you're trying to paint this picture in their mind versus handing them a pair of sunglasses and you know, either. It's like I've talked to some like severely nerdy people who are into that technology. And they'll say, well, yeah, we could do virtual reality where you put it on and you're completely in this new space. But they said there's also, Look at it from an augmented reality. So you look around the room you're in right now, you can see everything. You put those glasses on and the new design goes over top of it. Right. So you can see the old and the new at the same time. Oh my God. Like you telling me they wouldn't sign.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Up right there and maybe change life. Oh, no, I don't like this color. We're gonna change this.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. Right? And then, and then. So that's you. That's, that's you, the interior designer selling that. And then I come in and meet with the homeowner and I pull out some drawings and a mood board. And a physical mood board. Like who's getting the contract, who's getting the job?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes, yes, yes. I think this is going to be amazing. Amazing. I can't wait for this.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Oh no, that's fantastic. All right. You have, you have totally sold me. I, want to become your customer. So, so, so what do I, what do I got to do? Do I email you? Do I call you? Do I go to. What do I do?
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Yes, email me, jessica.com. or you can send me a direct On instagram @beandlive3d and just send me a message. And I would love to, to represent your project, to do the videos for you. And I love this job. I love to, to try different because I am an artist, but when I do the 3D, I can do different projects and different styles for different cultures. So it's amazing. I love my job. I love. Help other people.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. I'm so glad I got you on the podcast. I knew I was going to enjoy this conversation.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Oh, thank you so much.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I'll make sure to include all your contact information in the show notes and maybe links to images or video so people can take a look at your work right away. Yes, that'll be good. Okay. This has been fantastic, Jessica.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Oh, it's got. Is the end already?
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica Lacerda - Be and Live 3D: Okay.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I, I think we ended on, I think we ended on a high note there. I'm, I'm excited. I'm ready to go right now.
The Competitive Reality YOU'RE Facing
YOUR design talent hasn't changed, but YOUR clients' expectations have. The interior designers winning projects aren't necessarily more creative than YOU - they're meeting the presentation standards clients expect from luxury service providers. This technology gap determines who gets hired and who gets passed over, regardless of design quality.
The Implementation Path That Works
Start with proven 3D visualization partnerships that handle technical execution while YOU focus on design. Jessica's approach requires only floor plans, measurements, and specifications - not years of software training. Include visualization as a line item in project proposals, allowing clients to pay for the enhanced experience they value. This positions the investment as a client choice, not YOUR business expense.
The Transformation That Changes Everything
Imagine presenting designs that clients can experience emotionally before construction begins. Imagine client meetings where they're requesting design elements they initially resisted because they can see how they'll look. Imagine winning projects because YOUR presentations create confidence, not just communication. The technology exists. The question isn't whether visualization will become standard - it's whether YOU'LL gain the advantage while there's still time, or struggle to catch up when everyone else adopts it.
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