[Lisa Town]

Hi Jay,

What are your strengths or skills? There are so many directions that landscape architects could potentially go. You don’t really have much to go on from your profile. One easy way to go is into some sort of graphics field. The upside to that field is that you don’t need a dedicated degree, just skills. That’s why it makes it a bit more difficult to move over to something like, say, architecture. Although not that it can’t be done.

But there are so many ways you can go in graphic design. If you have an affinity for marketing and communications, that’s a direction to pursue and maybe even branding. Also environmental graphic design firms that do signage, wayfinding and interpretive stuff. There are also firms that do work FOR landscape architects like visualization and what I’ve found with these firms is that they actually really want people that have been in the landscape or architecture business because they understand more what they are doing. Even if you can’t actually do any visualization often times they need project managers who handle the project, deal with landscape architects or architects, create the vision and manage the team of viz artists. In fact, I know someone who left the landscape architecture field to be one of those people and he loves it. And one thing he is doing is learning more things on the side to enhance his skills, maybe to take on some viz stuff himself.

Another thing lots of people do is work for companies that sell products to designers. I knew a landscape architect that left to start up her own lighting company and another guy who left to become an irrigation rep for Rain Bird. Again, these companies want landscape architects because they know what landscape architects want. Are there any areas or products you are particularly good at or interested in?

There are also endless plant related areas. You could become an arborist?

I could come up with all kinds of stuff, tell me more about your skills and I’ll see what else I can come up with. Don’t lose heart about landscape architecture though, it’s such a wonderful profession and the future is bright….we just have to get over this hump, like nearly every other industry out there.

[Lisa Town]

If you can, go to Versailles! Especially if it is a nice day. The interesting thing is that the locals just consider the gardens like their neighborhood park, so it’s not just tourists. People go there with their families and so it’s not just tourists but people enjoying the gardens…strolling, biking, boating. My husband and I rented a bike which was awesome and it was a beautiful day in early August and so we got a couple ice cream bars and sat by the main pool with our bare feet hanging over the edge and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. We actually ended up dripping a little ice cream into the water and these gigantic prehistoric fish came up and tried to eat our toes. I’ve never seen anything like it!

As a landscape architect…you might also enjoy the Viaduc de Artes and Promenade Plantee. It’s the elevated park that atop an old, unused viaduct. The arches of the old viaduct were turned into retail and art spaces.

[Lisa Town]

I have done both online and print but my question for you is why you might want it online. If you have things that you feel are better shown online, for example, an animation or some sort of digital work…then definitely. Then, if you have chosen to put something online then you will want to keep it simple, yet interesting.

Not that I’m saying you should use Flash but when I did my online portfolio I used Flash and made a very dynamic and interactive portfolio, partly to showcase my knowledge in the programs and to display some animations but also in trying to captivate my audience, keep them interested and wanting to delve further into the site. While this isn’t necessary for you, what IS good about Flash is that it won’t allow anyone to snag your images if you are concerned about that.

But you don’t necessarily have to create your own unless your interested in spending a bit of time learning (Flash is pretty fun), you can get a template online or use some kind of online portfolio website like Carbonmade, ImpactFolios or Foliolink. There are tons of options out there.

But definitely, definitely have a print portfolio. An online portfolio is in no way a substitute for what you will show someone in person when you get that interview, or what you may want to send to them in the mail. And some firms won’t even accept online portfolios because they want to touch it, see it on paper and see your skills in putting together a good print product. Good luck!!

[Lisa Town]

A website is a great way to get people to look at your material, especially if you have computer animations you’d like to showcase. However, be aware that not all firms like this and some will require a printed version. It’s best to be able to have both available if you can. Try to create a flexible format that lends itself well to being on the web and in print form. Create a memorable identity for yourself. And this doesn’t need to be complicated. For example, say you pick a certain shade of blue as your color. Maybe it’s on your website, in your printed portfolio and then you send a post-interview thank you card with the same blue. Or in this day and age where things are pretty tough, you might send a some little teaser booklet with you web page in there, and then follow up with a little post card. It’s always nice to have an identifiable format, color or logo…something that when they see it in the mail or on their desk they know who it’s from and keep you in their mind.

The reason I say not everyone goes for the online thing is that I’ve personally come across it a few times. I’d had created a highly interactive and dynamic flash portfolio, that was also on the web but I distributed it on a mini cd with some accompanying paper items, partly because I was trying to showcase my graphic design, flash and animation work as well as my landscape work and while some people loved it for its creativity and uniqueness, some people still required a print version.

So while I personally am a big fan of a paperless world, some principals prefer something they can sit at their desk and flip through. And chances are you’ll want something as a hardcopy to take into an interview anyway, so it’s not lost work. And yes, Lulu is a good one!

Good luck!

[Lisa Town]

Yeah, that drawing looks really nice and what I like the most about is that it accomplishes exactly what you say in putting that “jazz” back in the drawing. Computer drawings can so often lack that feeling of life. It actually reminds me of a series of drawings that were used on one of my projects that was in collaboration with Foster and Partners. They got a professional to do this cool painterly collage thing that had great effects with light, shadows and color.

One thing I found interesting is that at Atelier Dreiseitl we always used hand renderings and sketches in presentations. They would be drawn in ink and then colored in Photoshop. It was the style of choice whenever trying to sell conceptual designs. But an interesting thing happened when a similar style was submitted for a project in Asia…the client actually came back and requested that we redo the drawing in the computer because they felt hand drawings to be unacceptable. It just goes to show, it’s not even just about the phase but also about knowing the client.

So Nick, any tips on how you created some of the effects in your drawing? How about those trees, those look totally watercolor. Can we see a bigger version of one of those?

[Lisa Town]

The best thing is definitely to check out things that would normally be on the list for any tourist….

A great walk along the river is a good start, especially in the summer. You can walk the loop along both sides of the Willamette, or grab bikes or rollerblades. There are many must see projects all along the way including the brand new (still currently in construction) Ankeny plaza and waterfront amphitheater with the new structure for the Saturday market. The market is a must-see for any visitor to Portland.

Also, check out the Halprin fountains, everyone loves those and the Pearl District with Jamison Square and Tanner Springs Park.

And for a great forest walk….check out Forest Park, starting at the Vietnam Memorial and Washington Park arboretum.

[Lisa Town]

I agree, it should be designed specifically for certain uses that required it. I also hate seeing lawns in strange shapes and sizes and in places where it could’ve been anything else.

[Lisa Town]

Photoshop is kind of like AutoCAD, you can use it for years and years and still learn something new with every drawing you do. And really, that’s half the fun! Just play around with it and you’ll find endless inspiration.

Here’s tutorial number one which covers the basics of the Quick Mask: Mode:
http://www.land8lounge.com/profiles/blogs/photoshop-tip-1-quick-mask

I’ll be posting more tutorials now and then, so stay tuned for more! And Happy Photoshopping!

[Lisa Town]

This tends to be the pretty typical place many firms buy packages of people, trees and cars:
http://www.realworldimagery.com/

It really depends on what you trying to cut out and what the background is but that is why it’s really great to have a good grasp on Photoshop’s many selection tools. I would recommend checking into both the background eraser, which can be good for trees depending on the background, but the most powerful is defintely the quick mask tool.

The quick mask tool will allow you to use multiple selection tools all in one selection, including all kinds of paint brush tools, thus giving you an incredibly powerful toolbox for cutting out complicated imagery. By using the Q key to toggle back and forth between the mask and selection modes, you can make sure to get all the detail you need. Then, to take it a step further, it also works like a mask in that you can use black and white to add or delete from selections including grays to do partial selections.

There are other tricks to refining your selection beyond that as well. I am putting together a blog post tutorial on some photoshop things too….will post that when it’s complete!

[Lisa Town]

That is very true! There are two people at my office that have that talent and they use it everyday. One of the biggest advantages is that they can go to workshops away from the office and draw up perspectives of ideas on the spot. In fact, this gets people opportunities because they get sent to workshops, competitions and other countries to be able to draw things as people are talking through the ideas. In fact, seeing just how useful it is has sent me back to the drawing board for more practice so I can hone my own hand rendering skills to be able to draw up amazing perspectives in minutes! I’m totally jealous of people like you Rob 🙂

[Lisa Town]

The key is really to understand when you use the pen and when to use the computer. Ultimately everything done by hand will be transferred to the computer for those fancy presentation drawings, cad sets, etc. Also it depends on what you are designing. Sometimes taking something into cad to work out a problem makes sense and sometimes doing something in Photoshop is easier to keep things vague if that’s what you want. Personally I think it really depends on the problem that you are trying to solve and what your desired outcome should be.

The other key is to understand your client. In the beginning of project, if you show them a polished 3D model they might panic and think the design is done when they were just expecting some hand sketches. But other times, you might have a client that expects fancy photorealistic perspectives before the design is even done. Or maybe you need to come up with some nice Photoshop plans and vignettes for a public park in search of funding. Or perhaps you are doing a planning study for a very sensitive group and you want to do some hand drawn perspectives because the more real it looks, the more worried the neighborhood is about every detail and you really want to keep it vague.

As far as making digital drawings look hand drawn, this is actually a useful thing. Getting back to client expectations of drawings in the conceptual phase….if you draw up multiple concepts in cad, all with the same layer names, then you can just throw those drawings into a program like Impression or M-Color and quickly churn out multiple hand-drawn concepts with the same look in a short amount of time. This keeps drawing time down in the concept phase and allows the client not to feel locked in. Another reason clients don’t favor too much computers in the beginning is the fear for the budget and the idea of using up too much money in the beginning.

If you are spending tons of time trying to create hand drawn looks then I’m guessing you are creating something more than a concept or SD drawing. Many designers and clients like hand drawn effects because it brings a certain feel of richness and life that computer generated renderings sometimes lack. It’s amazing though how you can really create some cool things with a hybrid of the two. I saw some awesome perspectives from Foster and Partners that used this cool hybrid of watercolor and ink but it was obviously done in the computer and it was so rich that the client loved it.

Another cool effect I saw was a presentation from an architect that started out looking like a hand drawn plan and then the view zoomed into it while it tilted and become a hand-drawn looking model and then the camera flew through it. That one really wowed the crowd.

[Lisa Town]

Hand drawing is definitely not a lost art. As long as there is design, there will be hand drawing. I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t even think through a problem without drawing on something. It’s almost as if I am handicapped without a pen.

The computer is too confined and doesn’t allow for that free flowing thought of really connecting yourself with your thought process. You could be too busy trying to figure out just HOW to draw that perfect curve instead of just letting your hand flow and rework it till it’s perfect and then before you know it, you’ve lost that creative moment.

This actually reminds me of some exercises we did in our office retreat where we spent time each day with large crayons or paintbrushes over a huge pieces of paper just doing these flowform designs that were focused on getting us to connect with our minds and find balance through our drawing.

Drawing is such an important step…far beyond making a pretty drawing.

[Lisa Town]

While this works in the school studio too, a good thing to do in an office if you are feeling that way is to get someone else involved. Chances are they could use a few minutes to step away from their project too. Just take a couple minutes and explain to them what you are doing and throw them a pen and some trace, see what happens. Chances are it will spur on more ideas.

Sure there isn’t always time at the office step away for a long time but stepping away is good sometimes. Taking a walk to a great coffee shop and sitting with a coworker for a few minutes and just chatting can help get the mind off and refresh. Looking through books and magazines works for me as well.

It’s tough being a creative type 🙂

[Lisa Town]

Yeah, I have a love hate thing going on with lawn as well. I can’t help but look back on my childhood days of rolling down those nicely sloped hills of lawn in the schoolyard or running barefoot through the soft green before sliding down the slip and slide on my belly….

You know, the comment of the smell of freshly mown grass is an interesting one. Where is spring without that smell? I remember taking a walk around one neighborhood here in Germany in the fall and someone was mowing their lawn, perhaps the last cut before the winter, and it all of a sudden occurred to me that I had hardly been around that smell all year. I’m sure there were lawns being cut somewhere, but I didn’t notice it like the overwhelming smell back home in the US. I started to suddenly really pay attention to the yards and I noticed that most of the grass was really just in places where it was actually USED like the lawn “beach” along the lakefront that was constantly crowded with tourists in the summer (thank goodness we had no geese!) and the fußbal fields. But the yards didn’t really have much in the way of traditional lawns and most of the time, when there was grass there was usually some sort of open concrete block within it. It’s almost strange how many people park their cars in their front yards around here. Seriously.

I hate to think of lawns going away entirely as they certainly have their place but I definitely agree that areas in which the lawn does not actually have a purpose, it should be designed with nicely layered grasses, grouncovers, perrenials, shrubs and trees to provide multi-layer habitat with food, perching and nesting instead of just being, essentially, dead space.

[Lisa Town]

Who is “we” ? What is the name of your company? Do you have website and project portfolio? What has been your experience with the west coast to date?

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