Helping architects win

more of the projects you love

I’m Rachael Bernstone,
founder of Sounds Like Design,
and I’m on a mission:

  • to make architecture more accessible to more people, and

  • to help architects become more impactful, successful and profitable.

Because the world needs

good design now, more than ever.

If you want your architecture to change the world, 

you have to start by changing architecture.

(Are you ready to join the transition from
“architects design houses for rich people”
to #ArchitectureIsForEveryone?)

What is architecture business
development & marketing?

Successful architecture business development - the kind that delivers a steady pipeline of your ideal clients and projects - relies on two key components: mindset and skillset.

Mindset involves overcoming the profession’s long-held and deeply engrained belief that marketing somehow cheapens or demeans architecture, and the resulting view that: “the work should speak for itself”.

Skillset involves digitising your client acquisition process - using modern marketing methods - to distribute your key messages to your ideal future clients.

Changing your beliefs about what architecture marketing is and understanding where and how to invest your effort, time and money will accelerate your transformation from languishing practice to flourishing business.

  • “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

    Buckminster Fuller

  • “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing..

    - Tom Fishburne

  • "What do you want your future clients to understand about how architecture can make them feel?"

    - Rachael Bernstone

  • “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him [or her!] and sells itself.”

    - Peter Drucker

  • “Spending energy to understand the audience and carefully crafting a message that resonates with them means making a commitment of time and discipline to the process.”

    - Nancy Duarte

  • “Marketing is really just about sharing your passion.”

    - Michael Hyatt

  • “A year from now, you’ll wish you’d have started today.”

    - Karen Lamb

  • "Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell."

    - Seth Godin

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How can we help you to
design and deliver your ideal practice?

Meerkats sharing business development and marketing for architects

Who do we work with?

Sounds Like Design works alongside architecture practice owners, directors and principals, to develop business and marketing strategies, so you can design and deliver your ideal practice.

Architects don’t learn how to run a business at university, any many practice owners and directors are flying blind.

We work exclusively with architects, and we’ve worked with practices of all sizes from sole practitioners to small, medium and large firms.

Rachael has distilled 20+ years of industry knowledge into a proven business strategy framework, which can transform your languishing practice into a flourishing business…

… one that has a waitlist of clients who only want to work with you, enabling you to become more discerning about which clients and projects you take on.

“Thanks for the approach you take to lift the profession, lift people and bring hope. Hope that we are steering the ship. Your words are powerful and needed. I always look forward to reading The Architectural Drilldown.”

Luke Rowlinson
Rowlinson Architects

“Thanks once more for the amazing copy you wrote for the awards entry. I am sure it highly contributed to the success.”

Monika Obrist,
Refresh* Design

“Rachael has an incredible depth of knowledge on the world of design and is able to artfully position our practice and its work where it should be.”

Nick Tobias
Tobias Partners

Who is Rachael Bernstone?

Rachael is a business advisor to architects, advocate for good design and journalist, and she has specialised in communicating about architecture and sustainable design since 2002.

In 2003, Rachael was awarded the AV Jennings Churchill Fellowship to study Sustainable and Affordable Housing.

She founded Sounds Like Design in 2016 to promote conversations about the value of architecture, and to address the professional knowledge gap around business development and marketing.

As seen and heard on

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business development & marketing

Ready to get started?

Ready to get started?

Find out how to simplify your business development & marketing, so you can win more of the clients and projects you love working on