Canadian Home Workshop

It was about the beginning of February... I was at my drafting table dreaming of warmer days and the season to come. I was drawing away on a landscape plan for a customer... placing a pool in the correct position for them when my phone rings and it is the editor for Canadian Home Workshop asking me if I wanted to participate in a story they were doing. Now there is a call you don't expect to get every day!

The idea was to have me create 3 landscape plans centered around 3 themes and make the drawings look pretty. The question was...would I be interested in doing that? My answer was very short and direct! Yes!!!!...as would be the case with most any landscape designer worth his salt...when presented with a chance to display themselves in a magazine...who would say no?
So here it is folks... in this months current issue of Canadian Home Workshop...it is actually the April/May 2010 issue... which can be found in stores now or ordered online here!

Anyway, after my phone conversation, I tossed my blackberry on the table and went back to measuring my pool spacing to ensure proper setback dimensions according to the Town of Aurora, Ontario. I kept looking back at my phone and wondering if I really just had the conversation I had....first with the editor and then a second one with the art director...or was I actually sound asleep and dreaming of a life that was not mine!?!

When I sat down to draw the 3 plans, it seemed like kind of a fuzzy dream to me as the drawings were just like any other landscape plan I would do...only I was the client for each of the three backyard plans! Anyway, I just drew from my experience with the many clients I have designed for and created the concepts you will see in the magazine article...

It was fun!...lol...it was a lot of fun...and a lot of hard work too!!!....not to mention I was drawing these in the comfort of my workspace, watching Team Canada play Hockey...listening to a crackling fire in the wood burning stove while the snow lay on the ground outside.

When I opened my mail up yesterday...there it was...my hard work along side my name printed in ink... in a magazine seen across Canada...not only was my stuff in there, but my good friend and colleague, Lawrence Winterburn of Gardenstructure.com has one of his deck designs featured on the front cover of this issue along with a few showcased photos contained in a couple of the articles within this issue. He is someone I would gladly share the spotlight with on any given day....

Just wanted to say that the people at Canadian Home Workshop were a great bunch to work with and wanted to thank them for this opportunity!

Marketing and advertising your landscape design business ; by Lawrence Winterburn

So, you have graduated from a Landscape Architecture Program and now you wonder what to do next to start off your career?



You think to yourself: I need to design landscapes for wealthy people and they will recommend us to all their friends. I will soon be rich and respected in a matter of weeks—or so we think.

I’ll let you in on a secret. The majority of successful Landscape Architects are from wealthy families—they went to the best schools and may have multiple degrees because that’s how it is done. Their connections from school years will serve them well later on. This passive marketing is called networking. It is genetically based.

This article is about how hard the design business actually is without proper marketing. We all believe the same thing in the beginning; build inspired things, design from the heart, put a premium effort into our work and the world will beat a path.

Wrong!

If nobody sees what you do, the work was a wasted effort.

Remember that kid in high school that never studied but aced all the tests and was crowned valedictorian? He worked his butt off. And so did his cool sister. They studied about twice as much as you did… they were just too hip to admit it.

Now, how many Landscape Designers or Architects will admit to doing marketing?

IT is exactly the same principal!

They all want you to believe that they are creative geniuses that people seek out. They don’t have to do marketing. Many companies can get away with word of mouth marketing if they work hard at it. Working hard at word of mouth marketing means getting in touch with every client whenever you can. Asking for references and referrals. Often they reward for referrals with gifts.

In general it is simply a cop out to say, “All my marketing is word of mouth”. Those that do may be fine for a while; they coast along…until they hit a bump in the economy. Many people that claim word of mouth advertising simply can’t afford to do marketing due to a lack of profit. If they did some marketing…they may be able to afford their marketing.

When the economy gets sluggish and folks stop spending like they used to, there’s a lot of architects, designers, accountants and middle managers sniffing around for work. Being in business for about 21 years now…I’ve seen it happen.

Here’s another secret. When you do consistent and steady marketing you will find that you can choose the most profitable jobs and likely demand a better dollar for what you do.

There are tens of thousands of GREAT landscape designers around. Many are doing phenomenal things. Many will never be invited to headline at a major event. Many will never make a television or magazine appearance or get any free marketing whatsoever.

This is a very simple concept. Reserve 3-5% of gross income for marketing. If you are a startup you need to spend a fair chunk more to get the phone ringing. To gain the opportunities for bigger venues you need to get seen! (ask about our Landscape Designer's Group)

Building a successful design office is hard work. It is 7:27 Friday night as I write this. I've taken a break from editing marketing materials… and presently I’m heading back to that.

Anyhow, I wish you a prosperous and satisfying design career!

Lawrence Winterburn is the Founder and Principal Designer at GardenStructure.com . They Design and Build Architectural Garden Woodwork all over North America. Feel free to inquire with Paul Corsetti (my email is located in this blog's profile section) or contact Lawrence at Gardenstructure.com for more information about marketing your landscape design business. You can learn more about Lawrence at his blog, The Deck Business

Thomas D. Church - Landscape Architect

Here's a personal favourite of mine... Thomas D. Church

Back in university I was asked to do a design project that modeled after a well-known Landscape Architect's design style. Thomas Church was the one I chose for the project and I can tell you at that point I had no idea who he was... but for some reason I had picked his name to study.

(Photo Example: Church's influence in my design, as you walk up the stairs, your view of the garden changes many times before getting to the door.)

Since that moment, a whole world of design perspective opened up to me once I researched him. Thomas Church has continued to be one of the most influential designers for all my work. Church pioneered the use of gardens for people to interact in and not just something to view from inside the house. His design ideas took the homeowner outside the home and into the yard where they felt as if they were moving from one room to the next. The outdoors became an extension of a person's home... another spot to live in.

It is said that Thomas Church caused a whole society to change it's views of how the landscape worked. He gave full meaning to the term 'Landscape Architecture' as he pushed to combine the Architecture of the home with the landscape. Today there is a huge push to design outdoor kitchens and eating areas... patios and decks that act like living rooms to entertain in... pool areas to lounge around in and enjoy the gardens nearby.

Thomas Church strongly believed that the gardens were for people that used them and as a designer, listening to what your client wanted was the most important thing a designer could do! When the designer stops listening and starts to push their own ideas for the use of a space, the design will ultimately fail...

Most of his design photos and theories can be found in a wonderful book he wrote "Gardens Are for People".

Landscape Architecture & Frederick Law Olmsted

Did Toronto miss out???

The man who started it all... Frederick Law Olmsted was the founder of the Landscape Architecture profession.

His creativity combined with his design principles had bridged the gap between the engineered environment of a city-scape and Nature itself. He designed as if Nature was there first and the man-made landscape came after.

The photo on the left is a look at Olmsted's Summit Chalet in Mount Royal (Built in 1931... 28 years after his passing.)

Olmsted's most famous work can be seen in New York City's Central Park , which is a green oasis built amongst the structured city. He has done many other projects scattered around the U.S. and a few projects here in Canada: Most popular; Mount Royal in Montreal, Quebec and Montebello Park in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Now this may come as a shock to some Torontonians...

Olmsted at one time was being asked to come to our grand old city and work his magic!!! Where you ask??? The Toronto Islands! Yes, since way back in the late 1800's, there existed the debate about what to do with the stretch of sandy deposits on our waterfront.

The Island system was formed from the Scarborough bluffs eroding away for many years and depositing it's sand into Lake Ontario. The Lake currents along with easterly moving storms carried the sand westward (pre-Tommy Thompson Park construction) where it met the Don River Wetlands (The wetlands no longer exist today due to city development). The sand deposited to form the Island's present day location.

In the late 1800's, the Toronto city council was divided on bringing Olmsted here to beautify our Lakeshore. The end decision was that Toronto did not need to bring in an "American Planner" to make a Canadian park! Instead they decided to leave it up to the city planners of the time! Yet another good decision made by our local government....if you live in Toronto, you would see on occasion, the Island still gets heavily debated over what to do with some of it's areas.

Had Olmsted been hired for his services as a Landscape Architect by the city all those years ago, the Toronto Island would have been forever treated as an historic treasure and would have added even more value to the waterfront.