Have you seen the LA tee shirt w/ the stupid slogan?

Sounds very similar to a shirt I was given that was created by the student ASLA chapter of a particular school for the 2011-12 year.  The front reads “Yes, I am a Landscape Architect.” while the back says “No, I will not do your back yard.”  I’m not sure which thought came first – wondering if they had any concept of the current job climate in our profession or when will I ever wear this because it sure won’t be in public.

They wear those shirts and still are likely to take issue with the current thread where someone suggests that landscape architecture is devoid of garden designers. Then they hang it in the closet next to the “celebrate diversity” tee shirt.

Sounds like we have an identity crisis.

I think it just comes from the feelings you get when even after years of hoping this would change, you state your profession and someone responds “Oh, I need you to come over and tell me what I can do around my mail box!” It’s not that doing a real artistic total solution garden is not noble etc. but that there is a tendency to want quickie free answers to “sick plant” questions etc. -although I’m surprised that students would already have so much of it that they would design a T-shirt.

We just have to remember that it happens partly because there is a version for every other field people only partly understand. I’m willing to bet it happens at parties with vets hearing about sick dogs and architects about great ideas seen in magazines. I can only imagine what lawyers get to hear. And it’s partly because of the blurring of functions encouraged by the green industry with assurances in their advertising that they are designers, too. In some situations they can suffice, in others not so much. And then there are the universally occurring agricultural extension service trained “master gardeners,” who can do some community service good deeds but whose title could foster some misunderstanding of roles.

Time to get out my “I WILL!” shirt.

The silliness continues. These are probably the same individuals that have a problem with the name of our profession. As an LA that has worked mostly on “larger” projects, I love the opportunity to design small gardens. I find designing a small private garden just as challenging as designing a high school site design. Real designers just want to design whether it’s a strip mall sign planting or a 50 acre high end office park. Yes, Alan this kind of BS is arrogant and counterproductive to our profession. Some folks need to stop being so insecure and worrying about prestige. In other words just be professionals.  

Sounds like a bunch of students to me. Very counter productive for our precession indeed.