Artifice, Inc.

Today at Artifice we publish, as shown by independent Alexa.com statistics, the Web's leading network of architecture sites, the leading architectural media site, the leading architecture community site, the top architectural email newsletter, the best-selling architectural reference CD-ROM, one of the most widely used 3D design tools ever, and the original and category-leading online petitions web site. Together, our sites serve millions of visitors monthly, while our products enhance creativity and community around the world.

Artifice, Inc. was founded in 1992 to develop and publish a new generation of creative 3D modeling software for the building design professions. Artifice continues that pioneering spirit today, developing and publishing new media and tools for environmental design, communication, and participation, from 3D home design to professional architecture.

These days we see ourselves as creators and international publishers of digital media for environmental designers and design aficionados, and as a committed provider of creative design tools. Our continuing mission is to creatively apply timeless principles of good tools and good design, in the fast-paced modern world of digital media. Learning from world culture, grounded in appropriate technology principles, our work is often guided by a progressively-refined philosophy of low-tech/high-tech.

Our award-winning family of 3D design tools, with its patented user interface and hundreds of thousands of users worldwide, is the design-oriented 3D CAD DesignWorkshop® family, including DesignWorkshop Lite, Classic, and Professional. Our family of related web sites attracts literally millions of visitors, anchored by GreatBuildings.com, the leading general architecture site on the Web. Our innovative ASP web site is RenderCity!, providing both free and subscription-based daylight rendering over the web, using the Radiance lighting simulation software engine.

Artifice web sites include the most popular architecture site overall (GreatBuildings.com), the most popular architecture media site (ArchitectureWeek), and the most popular architecture community site (DesignCommunity.com), based on independent rankings at Alexa.com. Together these Artifice sites dominate architectural web.

Since its launch in May 2000, ArchitectureWeek has grown rapidly into the world's leading architecture magazine online. Delivering exceptional writing and great imagery to a larger design and building-related readership than the leading hardcopy architecture monthly, ArchitectureWeek is created 48 times each year by a team of internationally renowned architectural writers and photographers, supported up by reader contributions and premiere sponsors, using a dynamic Internet-based publishing model with a small core staff and a worldwide team of great contributors.

The Great Buildings Collection on CD-ROM, a multimedia encyclopedia of architecture published by Artifice, has been the best selling architecture CD-ROM at Amazon.com for more than 24 consecutive months. Our Artifice Images division provides quality architectural stock photography to leading publishers, authors, periodicals, and creative agencies worldwide, from our collection of ten of thousands of photos by represented photographers.

At Artifice we believe that good tools are clear, simple, and powerful. We create software with more functionality, not just more features. We hope you'll experience the power of this approach by using our software and media, which will help focus on your ideas and your creations, instead of on your computer.

Definitions: Artifice. 1534. [a. F., ad. L. artificium]  1. The action of an artificer, construction, workmanship.  2. The product of art.  3. Mode or style of workmanship.  4. Constructive skill.  5. Human skill.  6. Skill in expedients.  7. An ingenious expedient. Artificer. ME. [app. an AF. or ME. formation on ARTIFICE]  1. One who makes by art or skill.  5. One who practises any art; a savant. — The Oxford Universal Dictionary, Third Edition

Much as a timeless quality is found in great works of architecture, a timeless quality is also found in great tools. Our hope is to serve you with this quality -- to transcend mere technology -- to help you unlock the power of your imagination.

We also believe that good tools deserve to be backed up by great support. In pointed contrast to some software giants, Artifice always provides unlimited free technical support to all our registered users, and our technical support staff is friendly, patient, and experienced.

We also work to assemble appropriate software accessories to complete a wide variety of task-oriented solutions enabled by DesignWorkshop technology. For instance, we include useful third-party software like slide show and image conversion programs, and even our basic software packages come complete and ready-to-go with CAD translators, 3D libraries, scaled material textures, online documentation and tutorials, and examples of both general and specialized applications. Additional accessories for DesignWorkshop are provided by third party developers like ByteSyze Studio and 3D Innovations.

We believe anyone can afford to use the right level of DesignWorkshop, from grade school students using the freeware DesignWorkshop Lite, to international architects and production designers using DesignWorkshop Professional, and we have established price structures accordingly. We provide maintenance upgrades free of charge, our major upgrade prices are always reasonable, and academic discounts, multi-pack prices, and corporate site licenses are also available.

Artifice products are distributed in the U.S. without hardware copy-protection devices, and with concurrent-use licensing, so they are easy to install and easy to maintain. We believe in a relationship of trust with our customers. Artifice is a founder and continuing sponsor of the Quesa open source 3D graphics project, and has been a corporate member of the Software Publishers Association and the Open DWG Alliance. Most of our products are available in dual platform formats supporting both Windows and Macintosh.

As new-economy multimedia publishers, we seek to provide information resources for designers and students at every level, that are both clear and deep, that are as accessible as they are extensive. In select and appropriate areas, we are pioneering new business models that create a closer partnership between publisher and contributors.

In a different realm of public service, Artifice also maintains PetitionOnline.com, the original and leading online petition hosting Web site. Created by Artifice in 1999, PetitionOnline.com is a living experiment in true online democracy. With many thousands of active petitions and more than 20 million signatures collected, the site is supported primarily by generous contributions from its worldwide users.

In addition to product development and media publishing, Artifice allocates a significant percentage of our budget to long-term research in market-transforming new technologies, through projects like the CDEAT project co-sponsored with the California Energy Commission. Research-level knowledge is shared with our clients for custom software development and consulting services, ranging from Abvent of Paris to Misawa of Tokyo. We can provide particular expertise in areas including workflow analysis and support, design facilitation, and advanced user interaction.

We believe in what we're doing, and hope you will find it useful. We always appreciate your comments and suggestions, so please drop us a line anytime.

Let your imagination soar! And come back to earth gently, with a smile.

Best wishes,

Kevin Matthews
President and CEO
Artifice, Inc.
matthews@artifice.com

541-345-7421 main office (reception 9am to 6pm U.S. Pacific time)
541-345-7438 main office fax
503-296-5613 backup fax
P.O. Box 1588
Eugene, OR 97440-1588
USA