Design Tips

When most people start there flower garden they just start digging and planting stuff. They let things flow from their mind naturally. The problem with this is that things might not look right as things actually start to mature. This could easily be avoided if you just think things through a little bit more. Were going to take a look at how you can come up with a great flower garden design that you will be happy with.

Start With A Site Analysis

What you are doing here is giving yourself an idea of what can grow in certain locations. If a part of your garden is shaded then you will need to make sure the plants you grow there can handle shade. Look at your soil. Find out what will grow in the different types of soil. You can't just design for beauty. Healthy plants are important too.

Draw It Up On Paper

It really helps to draw up a basic design of how you want your garden laid out. This gives you an idea of how things look before you even get started on the project. This doesn't have to be perfect nor does it need to be perfect. You also have the right to change your mind later. The idea is to start with a plan.

Sketch out where you want certain plants. Where do you want shrubs? Where do you want roses to go? Where do you want your vegetables to go. What types of plants will go well together? What mix of colors will bring out the best of your garden? Where will your water fountain go? What is the best place to put a bird feeder?

Keep Space In Mind

Different plants need different amounts of space. For example, roses need a fair bit of space between plants. And you can't just grow something like cucumber anywhere or pumpkins as their vines may interfere with other plants.

Are You Trying To Attract Birds & Butterflies

Many people plant flower gardens so that they can attract birds and butterflies. This does effect your design. What is your plan to go about attracting these animals and insects? Will you have a bird bath? Will you have a bird feeder? What plants attract butterflies easily? Where will you locate these things in your garden so that they look nice?

How To Decorate Physical Things

This is something else you need to look at. Do you have a flag pole? What sorts of flowers, shrubs, or decorations would you like to put around that pole? The same can work for water fountains, bird baths, and bird feeders. How can you spice these up by growing or decorating around them?

Conclusion

Those are just few ideas and things you need to consider as you design your perfect flower garden. As you design all of it out on paper realize that your original vision can change. But a little planning can go along ways before you get things started.

John E White is the author of First Garden Mastery. It's an e-book that walks new gardeners through the creation of their very first garden. Visit http://www.firstgardenmastery.com/ to learn how to grow the garden of your dreams and sign up for your free 7 day mini course on gardening for beginners.

// posted by gng @ 5:44 PM 0 comments

If you google "choice" you will get over 587,000,000 results in under 0.21 seconds. One of the top results, Wikipedia, says choice involves, "the merits of multiple options."

Is there really merit in such a vast number of options? Visual designers in commercial fields, like print, architecture, interactive, interior design, and advertising are expected to show concepts and themes in creative presentations.

These presentations always revolve around a choice. To some designers there are only three design concepts to choose from:

1. The one the designer likes
2. The one the client asked for
3. The compromise

The best presentations are the ones where the designer understands the client's objectives. The visual solutions should demonstrate how different aspects of the objectives may be revealed or emphasized in the design.

This approach is much more nuanced and does not fit into "spicy, medium, or mild." A product aimed at a younger audience may need all spicy solutions; an insurance product may need all mild solutions. Just showing a range of choices in preconceived frameworks does not enhance the visual communications process.

How many choices should there be?
We're often told the more choices-the richer the presentation. And yet a study by researchers Sheena Iyenger and Mark Lepper at Columbia University demonstrates that too many choices actually reduces people's ability to make a decision. Their study involved samples of jam. When a shop displayed six flavors of free samples, sales increased 10 times more than when they offered 24 flavors. More choices did not lead to better decisions - or more sales. "There's a point where all of this choice starts to be not only unproductive, but counter-productive - a source of pain, regret, worry about missed opportunities and unrealistically high expectation," says Barry Schwartz, PhD, a Swarthmore College psychologist.[Add link]

And then there are theories that once you make a selection you won't go back to the other choices. We once presented 10 concepts for a logo design and the client said he loved all of them. He and his wife agonized for days over the right choice. He finally called a week later with his selection. We proceeded to refine the artwork and began to create the branding environment for the new identity. For the next couple of weeks we showed how the stationery, signage and communication programs would look with the new logo. Then the client got cold feet, called and said he wanted us to start all over. I suggested we go back and look at the other 9 logo concepts that they also loved. And he said, "Those are all rejected, I want to see something new."

At another client presentation we showed three distinctive concepts. The client liked one direction and said the other two, "really do not work for us at all." We said, "That's why we showed you three." And she said, "But can you come up with another one - we'd like to make a choice." I reminded her that she just did make a choice. It shouldn't be about making another choice - it should be about how well this concept meets the objectives - reflects the values of the brand and promise.

Otherwise, it is choice for the sake of choice. If it's really about the choosing then we could call in Monty Hall and play "Let's Make a Deal." The best solutions combine the client's expertise in identifying the objectives with the designer's ability to visually express the value of a product or service to the target audience.

David Langton is a principal at Langton Cherubino Group, a strategic design and interactive agency in New York City. http://www.langtoncherubino.com

// posted by gng @ 5:01 PM 0 comments