[Derick Langel]

Jon, I am in the same boat …maybe many of us are, with the difference that i do not feel my business is taking off and probably much older…, I get projects here and there, so for me both points of view are very valid, no need to get all fired up fellow LA’s; there is nothing greater than to be your own boss, but also working on million dollar projects + is very rewarding…, in the end , I believe it has to do with your personality, if you are the corporate team player or the free spirit…, again, I have done both, and enjoyed both and for me it is harder to decide for other reasons (I have two cultures background, am an Architect in Costa Rica as well, but have two kids and need to put food on the table), and have tried partnerships or other ventures and have not fully worked out.Right now I would take a position with a firm. Definitely my two cents for you Jon is to keep doing what you are doing, especially if it is working out, you are getting experience and getting cash flow at the same time and learning more field experience, you would be surprised how much project management you will keep learning , even if they are “small” projects, and show on your Resume what you are doing,why not..it shows character, if getting a job is what you want keep searching, someone will appreciate you are a designer but also had a shovel in your hands and managed field personnel…, it is better than showing a gap, or worse, not being shortlisted for a position because you are down playing your biz but they can find you online,website…etc…as an established biz.That is what I am doing, and it is hard to tell what has been the determining factor in not getting shortlisted in positions in the USA, ; since I seem to be luckier with overseas offers… maybe that is something that is good for you, for some time and then come back to your biz. Whatever you do don’t let yourself get rusty…get LEED certified, learn or practice your 3D stuff, learn more irrigation, keep yourself up to date with autoCAD, tutorials, etc…, things you can talk about in your next interview or tools that will help your biz grow even more, being more productive… good luck man.

[Derick Langel]

I would agree that all except fragance, play a role in their ornamental value. I think of ornamental as architectural (must be the architect in me); so most times that i design an architectural garden i look for vertical plants (grasses-snake plant-bamboo), balanced structure, nice”design” leaf or frond structure (such as agaves)…nice contrast (alocasias) nice texture (juniper)
check out : http://www.architecturalplants.com/plants.html
my two cents…

[Derick Langel]

I agree with Lee Martin. I am just going to write my thoughts without much thought…
Money is the bottom line.That being said you don’t want to get involved in training people a certain way only,by the time you are “done” doing this there is new ways of doing things…. in my mind it is best to stay flex and also in tune and aware of new ways of doing things,but, sometimes you need to color a sketch for a presentation that same day and the “rendering guru” is out of the office, we can’t all be gurus in everything,as you grow in the profession you are dealing more with Project Management spec’ing and coordinating…. so grab some pencils and get it done…….as new technologies come available, even in the same “old” software, then they can be implemented; for example I am starting to explore autocad 2010 and it seems you can fade away layers sort of like photoshop…,
the name of the game is libraries, yes, even in photoshop, you can have libraries of stuff you can easily add to either a sketch or autocad drawing base. AutoCad is basically the industry standard, still is, so most of your stuff will be .dwg to start with…. I like Landf/x plug-in, you can do the plans and turn on and off the shadows…
i know I am all over the place, but that’s my two cents…

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