Mike Lin Phenomenon

I see your at it again Alex. Focusing on what’s really not important. It doesn’t matter if a tree looks a maple or an oak it’s about form and expressing a feeling. Shade tree… blah, blah, move on. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Okame Cherry or a Crape Myrtle at the conceptual stage. Flowering tree with XYZ characteristics done – think big picture first, details later. You wouldn’t design a home starting with furnishings and window treatments.

I’m not sure when Mike started, but I took his 2 (or 3) day class in the late eighties. He was popular then because his style was fast, fun and most importantly it communicated design intent. I agree a lot of my classmates took his week long course and everyone had snappy marker drawings with happy dots. But the thing is, Mike’s class was an excellent foundation. My drawings look nothing like Mike Lin’s style now. He taught me how to be loose and not labor over drawings. Why sit and spend hours drawing thousands of leaves in detail with a fine pen when can express the same feeling with a quick suggestion of leaves. Being able to draw quickly allows a designer to spend more time doing what’s important-designing.

The basic style pre-dates Lin and was pretty standard Landscape Architecture graphics prior to the computer revolution. I had friends who took his workshop in 1982. The big deal was not the style as it was the standard look. It was the ease and comfort in the technique. That gave people comfort and confidence to acheive pretty much the same look that everyone in the profession was doing.

If you could not do that style, by whatever technique, you were not going to get a job in Landscape Architecture up until after that time simply because there was no alternative. I know this because I could not draw well and was told this by my professors. I did drop out until CAD was prevalent enough to make learning it a viable way to enter the profession. Now there are many graphic tools and options that are being used in the profession – old style rendering is still one of them.

Obviously you still don’t understand that the final product is not the glitzy photo realistic drawing nor is it the masterfully crafted hand rendering, it’s what ends up in the ground. Some how, you missed something while you were focusing on fonts and other things that are of little importance to an LA.

But, I agree with you about raw SketchUp drawings. They can be pretty cold and lifeless. I like to tone them down and soften them in a rendering program like Shaderlight (sp?) and Photoshop. Then I put hand work on top of that image. I guess a lot people are using this method now. No? I’m a little isolated now.

This might be my last piece of advice to you Alex. Stop wasting your time screwing around with fonts and drawing perfect trees and focus on acquiring skills an LA office would be willing to pay you for. That way you don’t have to be jealous of people who have skills that you don’t have.

What’s up with the helvetica neue? I agree it’s the most readable, simplistic form of font, but that’s not to say there aren’t fonts worthy of use. Your forceful, repetitive reference ignites a rebellious side in not only myself, but I’m sure others. I’m sure your also a Mac obsessive who thinks PCs are completely worthless. Your criticism insinuates lack of real world experience which I assumed you had considering your level of criticism throughout several discussions. No insult intended, just an aggressive responsive to an aggressive post. I only give a word of caution when questioning the successes of the people who have helped shape your career in one form or another.

Good argument. But I did not say anything of good/bad design. Experience has nothing to do with a passion for good design; experience should expand those obsessions, guide the development of your own style and focus of choice (urban/residential/commercial). Experience doesn’t beat anything out of you; it gives shape to your passion through the development of your own style. 

Just as firms use only one font style, it’s entirely okay to use your own. (I actually use Helvetica myself in a lot of projects…but I also don’t limit myself to only Helvetica). Plus, Helvetica is used everywhere, not just American Apparel – don’t bash the hipsters, they’re good designers too.

Remember to stay open-minded and instead of questioning the success, dissect the success into principles that you can apply to your own designs.

I’m wonder how you actually conceptualize designs yourself if you insist on such detail all the time right off the bat.

Don’t you do bubble diagraming at all? It’s not a plaza yet, it’s a nebulous “gathering space” connected with “circulation” indicated by dashed lines and everything has great big arrows, right? 

Thinking about species specifics is putting the cart before the horse. 

The “nameless orb” is part of that; you don’t have a plug-and-play planting list for everything, do you? But you do know whether or not you what a deciduous vs. coniferous tree and approximately how large it would be. 

So you do that; throw out the quick idea of a tree. 

You know who else can do that, besides Mike Lin?

Bob Ross. 

I knew of him before Mike Lin (information on his style was introduced in college for me) and Bob Ross and his “happy little trees” and “happy little bushes” where he was rolling out scenes with quickness and forming just the right impression of a place in a light manner that was inspiring. 

So no, you don’t know what species of tree Mr. Ross was dabbling out with his paint. You didn’t know how tall exactly they were or how close they were together.

That’s not the point, at that stage of conceptualization. It’s about ambience and spatial quality. 

The way I see it, one can wow a potential client with computer generated graphics (that have a quick turnaround time, great for billings) or you can seduce with media that has tactile qualities. It’s all good. 

The time for precision would be for making plans after the client’s taken the plunge and actually booked you for the job. Then turn that globule into a xx caliper Lagerstroemia or whatever.