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Vellum

What is vellum, and why is it in our name? Here is a little backstory for you, if you’ve just been too shy to ask.

Jeff Pelletier is the Managing Principal and Founder of Board & Vellum, an architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture firm in Seattle, Washington.
Jeff Pelletier
March 29, 2011

What’s with “Vellum” and what the heck is it? I hear this one a lot these days, and thought I’d go into what it is all about.

On the dry and informative side, vellum is a kind of paper that architects have historically drafted on with ink. It used to be made from animal products, and more recently with vegetable or manufactured products. It is somewhat transparent and a beautiful thing to hold.

Now, that’s the basics, but why is it in my name?

I won’t be drafting my documents on vellum. I use a computer. But I learned to draft on vellum, and it is something that I think really helps connect me to what I do. Putting my pen to paper (whether literally or figuratively) is one of the emotional connections to working as an architect that I hope to never lose. Architects do a lot of things, but one of the most beautiful things we do is to CREATE. Putting that first pen on a blank piece of paper (or vellum) is to start creating and making something out of what was nothing.

Going with the word Vellum was also a way of conveying that you’ll be dealing with an actual person when you hire Board & Vellum, and someone who is really concerned with the personal details of what can be a very emotional process! I absolutely love working with people, making people’s projects successful, and helping them complete their dreams. That takes a level of care and detail that I don’t feel that many builders or drafting services can provide. We’re not a factory, we know that every project we work on is unique. Just like the first touch of a pen to a piece of vellum helps create something new, it is our goal to help your project be beautiful and be a piece of art. I won't settle for anything else.

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