How to post a project under NDA with coming-soon teasers that don't breach confidentiality
How to post a project under NDA without breaching it: what the agreement usually covers, safe teaser ideas, client approval and timing around embargoes.
In this article
Your best project of the year is a hotel, a flagship store or a house for someone who values privacy, and you signed a confidentiality agreement before the first sketch. Meanwhile your Instagram has been quiet for months, and a competitor is posting every week. You can usually post something, but only if you know what the agreement protects, show details that give nothing away and get the client's sign-off first. This guide covers what NDAs on design projects typically cover, teaser ideas ranked by risk, the approval email to send, how to time the reveal around launches and publication embargoes, and how to make a coming-soon video safely.
Key takeaways
- Read the agreement before you post anything: many design NDAs protect the client's identity, the site and the program, not just the drawings.
- Material close-ups, process shots and tightly cropped fragments are the safest teasers, because they can't identify the client, the place or the design.
- Send the client the exact images and captions you plan to post and wait for written approval; "they won't mind" is not approval.
- Uploading confidential renderings to any outside tool, including AI tools, may itself be a disclosure, so check the agreement before files leave your studio.
- Plan the reveal around the client's launch and any publication exclusivity, because some magazines want the first full showing.
Can you post a project that's under NDA?
You can post a project under NDA only within what the agreement and the client allow. Read what the agreement defines as confidential, propose specific teaser images and captions in writing, get the client's approval, and post only details that can't identify the client, the site or the design until the agreed release date. If the agreement forbids even acknowledging the project, wait. This is general information, not legal advice; your own agreement and a lawyer's reading of it decide what is allowed.
What an NDA on a design project usually covers
Confidentiality terms come in two forms: a stand-alone non-disclosure agreement, often signed before the brief, and a confidentiality clause inside the design agreement. The standard AIA owner-architect agreement is an example of the second. Section 10.8 of AIA B101–2017 says that if either party receives information "specifically designated as 'confidential' or 'business proprietary,'" it "shall keep such information strictly confidential," and Section 10.7 excludes the owner's confidential information from the architect's promotional materials when the owner has flagged it in writing (AIA B101–2017, as published with an RFP).
Stand-alone NDAs are usually broader. On commercial, hospitality and high-profile residential work they often cover:
| What's often confidential | Why the client cares | A teaser-safe alternative |
|---|---|---|
| The client's identity | A brand launch, a tenant deal or personal privacy | "A new project for a hospitality client," if even that is allowed |
| The site or address | Land deals, security, neighbors | No location tag; no views, signs or landmarks |
| The program or tenant | Leasing, competition, unannounced openings | Describe the type only with approval |
| Design imagery | Marketing campaigns the client controls | Cropped details and materials |
| Cost and schedule | Negotiations and investor relations | Leave them out entirely |
| The relationship itself | Some clients don't want any public link | No post until release |
Read the definitions section closely, and check whether the confidentiality ends on a date, at a public announcement, or never.
Teaser ideas, from safest to riskiest
The best teasers say "something good is coming" without saying what or where. Ranked by how much they reveal:
- Materials and samples. A sample board, a stone slab at the yard, a timber finish under studio light. Nobody can identify a project from a slab of travertine.
- Process without context. Hands on a model, a detail sketch, a mock-up of a joint, the team around a table with nothing readable on the screens.
- Tight fragments. A cropped corner of a rendering: the light on a wall, a handrail, a window reveal. Crop until the building can't be recognized.
- Abstracted views. A white massing model photographed against a plain background, or a rendering with the site, signage and finishes neutralized. Only with approval: an abstracted building can still be recognizable to people who know the site.
- A countdown or announcement. "Opening next spring" with a fragment. Only with explicit approval and an agreed date, because it publicly links you to something that's about to happen.
Check every image for what hides in the background: a client logo on a binder, a site plan pinned to the wall, a street name in a rendering's title block, a reflection in a window. File names and metadata can also give things away when a file is shared outside Instagram.
Get the client's approval in writing
Approval works best when you make it easy. Send the exact images and caption text, not a general question, to the person who can actually say yes, which on commercial work is often the client's marketing or communications lead rather than the project manager. A short email does it:
"Hi Dana, we'd like to post a few teasers of our work for you without naming the project or the location. Attached are three images: a sample board, a crop of the lobby ceiling and a sketch of the stair detail, with the caption text below. Nothing identifies the client, the site or the brand. Could you confirm these are fine to post from [date], or let us know what to change?"
Keep the reply with the project records. Then tell everyone on your side who might post: your staff, the photographer, the renderer, the builder and your consultants. An NDA usually binds your team, and a consultant's well-meant repost is still your problem. Under AIA B101–2017, confidential information may be shared with "employees, consultants, or contractors in order to perform services or work solely and exclusively for the Project," provided they are bound by the same restrictions; marketing is not work for the project.
Time the reveal around launches and embargoes
The release date is usually the client's, not yours: a store opening, a press announcement, a sales launch. Your full posts follow it. Publications add a second constraint. Some magazines want the first full showing of a project, and a complete project tour on your Instagram can cost you the feature.
As of October 2026, Architectural Record "requests exclusive first publication among print and digital design publications" for features and won't consider material submitted to several publications at once (Architectural Record). Interior Design says a submitted project "must not have been published in any magazine as a feature layout in the United States or Canada," while a mention as a news item is acceptable (Interior Design). Neither page spells out how it treats a firm's own social posts, so if a feature matters, ask the editor before you post a full set of photos. How to get your project published covers exclusivity and pitching order in detail.
| Phase | What you can usually post | Who approves |
|---|---|---|
| Design and construction, under NDA | Materials, process, cropped fragments | Client, in writing |
| Client announcement or launch | Whatever the client's own announcement shows, reshared with credit | Client |
| Embargoed press or publication | Nothing beyond teasers until the embargo lifts or the feature runs | Client and editor |
| After publication | The full project: Reels, carousels, case study page | Client, photographer for image use |
Making a coming-soon video without breaching confidentiality
A short teaser film works well before a launch, as long as it is built only from images the client has cleared. Choose details, materials and abstracted views, and avoid anything an AI model would have to extend into context.
That last point matters for AI video. An image-to-video model reads pixels and invents what lies beyond the frame, so a slow pull-back from a cropped detail can generate surroundings that look like a real site, or reveal more of the building than your crop did. Review every second before anyone else sees it. Arch2Video makes a 30-second vertical film from six images of one project for USD 15 per video; its AI director plans the scene order and the motion is generated, so check the result against your approved set and describe it as concept work if the project isn't built; AI rendering disclosure wording has lines you can copy.
Before you upload anything to any outside service, check that the agreement allows it. Sending confidential renderings to a third-party tool can count as disclosure under some NDAs, whatever the tool's own terms say. The safe route is to upload only images the client has already approved for public posting.
Captions, tags and accounts that don't give it away
The image can be clean and the caption can still leak. Before posting:
- No client handle, brand hashtag or location tag.
- No hints that narrow it down: "for a well-known tech company" or "on the lake, opening in May" identifies more than you'd think.
- No tagged collaborators whose own accounts reveal the project.
- Turn off or check auto-shares to other platforms, so a Story doesn't land on Facebook with more context.
If something slips, take it down at once, tell the client yourself before they hear it elsewhere, check for reposts and screenshots, and note what happened and when. Quick, honest handling keeps most clients, and silence loses them.
Teasers keep the account alive, but they work best alongside your other projects, so the grid isn't a run of mysterious crops for six months; how often architects should post helps you pace them. For homeowners rather than corporate clients, asking permission to post a client's home covers releases and privacy checks.
Frequently asked questions
Can I say who the client is if I don't show the design?
Only if the agreement and the client allow it. Many NDAs protect the relationship itself, especially for brand launches, celebrity homes and unannounced developments, so naming the client can be the breach even with no images. Ask in writing, and if you get no clear answer, describe the project by type only or wait for the client's announcement.
Can I put an NDA project in my portfolio or a pitch?
Often privately, with permission. Some agreements allow confidential presentations to prospective clients but not public posting, and some allow nothing until a release date. Ask the client what's permitted, mark private presentation slides as confidential, and keep the project off your public website and Instagram until the agreed date.
Can I post the renderings once the project has opened?
Usually, once the client's announcement is out and the agreement's confidentiality has ended, but check both. Some NDAs keep certain information confidential indefinitely, such as costs, security details or tenant terms. Confirm with the client, credit the visualizer and photographer, and if a magazine feature is in play, check its exclusivity before posting the full set.
Can I upload NDA project images to an AI video tool?
Only if the agreement allows it. Uploading confidential images to any outside service can count as a disclosure, and a confidentiality clause that permits sharing with consultants "solely and exclusively for the Project," as AIA B101–2017 does, doesn't obviously cover marketing. The safe approach is to use only images the client has approved for public release. This isn't legal advice; ask a lawyer about your specific agreement.