Designers on Design

Every day until the winter solstice in December there is less and less daylight.  The darkness is making me think about light and opportunities to feature it the landscape after the sun goes down.  Many of my clients aren’t around during the day to enjoy their outdoor spaces, so I often specify landscape lighting for my design work. The images of lighting I’m including here go beyond what we traditionally think of as landscape lighting.  They are celebrations of light in the dark—from dragonflies cut out of recycled cans to full on panels of glowing blooms.  

Photos in order:  4d Designs, Garden Light, Experienced Materials, Lump Studios

Susan Cohan, APLD

www.susancohan.com

The Pacific Northwest is so fortunate to have such a broad spectrum of plants available for a designer to select. From Japanese Maples to drought tolerant grasses and succulents, we have an abundance of options. So many choices can make choosing landscape plants an overwhelming task to a homeowner. Working with a client who relies on our discernment and editing capabilities is a great privilege and pleasure, as well as a test of our skills every time we meet a new personality with different tastes and style expectations. With our wealth of options, it’s paramount that we do more than just listen to what plants a client does or does not want.

When walking around the landscape with a client, determining what needs are vital, also means listening with an intuitive ear. This skill is worth polishing. There are small details that are revealed in the first meeting, some very subtle and others blatant. I want to focus on the delicate and un-spoken language that a client offers us when we are toured through their space for the first time. What passion do they invoke about a particular space, plant, or style without ever mentioning it directly? Do you take the time to hear it?

Does the client’s choice of pets give you any clues? How about the lay out of the patio furniture? Is a sense of order showing inside but not outside? Do they take detailed notes when you speak? Is the body language that you are seeing in harmony with what you are saying?

Having many options that we can deliver to a client in a region where the choices can be virtually limitless means that offering up perceptive and insightful guidance can be an invaluable commodity. Designers who take advantage of using that ability do a great service to their client and the landscape.

We're all looking at great pictures here but I thought maybe you'd also like to have a look at what can make a difference somewhere else to help encourage food security and protect the environment.

I’ve wanted to use corrugated steel in a project for a long time.  I think it has incredible visual and functional possibilities.  I have to wait to find the right project and a client with an open mind. Because of the way people often see its fiberglass and sheet metal cousins, corrugated steel is often thought of as a rusted, broken down, trailer park, carport type of material, rather than as something that could add beauty and textural interest to an outdoor space.  Of course this is all theoretical at this point, since I don’t have a client that willing or brave, so I’ll file it under future possibilities.  It could go either way…

Susan Cohan, APLD

www.susancohan.com