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In my opinion good design refers to a way of thinking wich can turn the ordinary and usual into something more, using creative thought. Good design can go 2 ways: eighter the pursuit of simplicity ,, or … the dareness to find beauty in complexity. we might like something eighter for its simpliciy ,, or for its intricate complex layout:)

great subject! you got one buyer for amazon from me!

Here are my two cents. As a principal, owner, we all work together as a team to secure the bottom line, MONEY. Pretty pictures are a selling point to ultimately get paid. I have clients who come to me just for the pretty picture, those are the easy projects, being I am an artist first and LA second.

With that said, there are underlying liability…[Read more]

It is beautiful, do you know how old the Wisteria is there? I tried to look up the garden but couldn’t find any information…

Thank you for your input,Darcy. so if you are in favor of the farmers getting more water, then you would prefer us LA’s to use less water? where is more water for the farmers going to come from? I personally think farming needs to start to move where there is more water – the east coast…I don’t know why farming seemed like such a good idea, in…[Read more]

There is a company that manufactures a recycled water irrigation system for the homeowner. The company name is “ReWater,” based out of San Diego. I believe the cost for an avg. sized California lot is around $7500. This system collects the gray water from the house, then filters, stores and distributes it to the landscape via a sub-drip irrigation…[Read more]

Personal experience placed on the table here:

Yes, unfortunately the politics of power amongst professionals happened in my workplace (no time frame specified – but this is historical data for your rumination). Our training in site graphics are often used to ‘prettify’ architectural design proposals, to put that required site context. Often,…[Read more]

Some more good links I’ve recently found:

http://cals.arizona.edu/pima/smartscape/workshop_water.html
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/xeriscape/xeriscape.html
http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_xeriscape.htm
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07228.html
http://www.delange.org/Xeriscape/Xeriscape.htm

I totally agree with your perspective Ben. If you don’t have the LA working on the graphics or modeling tools, you may be producing graphics that don’t match your design. I think that it is very important to own many tool sets as an LA, especially in today’s environment.
I personally really enjoy the graphics (both hand and digital). As a visual…[Read more]

good luck and hopefully the powers that be will come to there senses and hire a professional.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here’s something called an olla, which I bet a lot of us have never heard of: http://www.highcountrygardens.com/catalog/product/99804/ . I know it’s not a flashy modern product, but the simplest method is usually the cheapest, right? I bet on small garden areas it might work well, limit the amount of irrigation and add a decorative element. Here’s…[Read more]

Well last one of the night for me 21.00hrs in UK…..you sound like you got it all well under control there Bob and a lot of jargon I am not used to but I think there is a definitive split developed where you work in relation to which era you come from, yes graduates are pretty fast and slick at the visuals and that is great if you can source them…[Read more]

Dear Fellows, thanks for your reply. The situation will be handled by non-professional people for the time being. We are on standby in case something happens such as a landslide. Sadly we will wait for the cows to get out of the pasture and then close the gate. Mike you are right down the middle on your approach. Appreciate it. Andrew I agree with…[Read more]

Yes and No.

First and foremost, we’re landscape architects.

Secondly, whether it’s 1909 or 2009, graphics are an essential method of conveying ideas, so that the ideas you so thoughtfully created as a landscape architect can by demonstrated to clients and the public who may not have the experience reading a black and white technical…[Read more]

You are spot on with that spatial awareness Ben and I always thought and imagined things like that before 3D although woke up to a few nightmares also but possesed the mean traditional graphic skills to bail me out……I am into large scale Sculpture now going back to my Fine Art roots and that is so inspiring when you have to make your artwork…[Read more]

I guess I have only responded to the statements of others rather than making an attempt at answering your question, so here it goes… the firs question is who is using you as a graphic designer/visualizer (GDV)? if you are being only used as a GDV by your client and then they are passing the construction documents on to a different LA firm, then…[Read more]

Well I took my vacation already Lee but it all depends on how you have your business stacked anyway I started out in that era of hand drawn plans and made the jump to CAD because Design is what I am all about while ‘my principals’ friends over the years alike chose to take the management route as they were not passionate about carrying on as a…[Read more]

Precisely, you can’t do CD’s without landing the job.

Another thought; I can’t speak to larger firms, but being involved with graphics has allowed me to have a very significant role in the conceptual design phase of numerous projects that would have traditionally been designed by the principals.