RECENT ARTICLES
Best Beginner Drafting Tools For Landscape Architecture & Design
In this article, I review the best beginner drafting tools to create professional and beautiful illustrative plans for clients or studio classes. Whether you are just starting or are a professional designer, hopefully this will provide a good reference on what to purchase and how to select quality tools for your drafting needs.
6 Essential Books That Every Landscape Designer Should Own: A Complete Guide
When someone is first interested in landscape architecture, it is easy to get lost in the wealth of books, videos, and software available throughout the industry. Eventually, the question will undoubtedly arise, “Which book would help me become a better designer?” In this article, I will review 6 books that continue to help me as a landscape designer.
Salary Guide For Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers
In this article, I breakdown how much landscape designers and landscape architects within the profession, specifically looking at the annual salary over the past few years. The data and information provided are specific to the United States.
4 Mistakes New Landscape Business Owners Make & How to Avoid Them
In this article, I will review 4 common mistakes new landscape business owners make and how to avoid them. Over the past decade, through running my own design company (along with teaching, mentoring, and coordinating with other landscape professionals) I have seen what works and what doesn’t. Use these line-items to help calibrate your own business for the best possible future success.
Drafting Landscapes Series: Learning Hand Drafting For Landscape Design
In this series, I will cover a variety of topics and skills that are essential for landscape designers when drawing plans and perspectives for clients. Articles will include an overview technical drafting skills, along with tips and tricks for drawing different landscape components.
In this article, we will be reviewing the body mechanics of design drafting. It might seem as though any drawing technique might work as long as you have the right equipment, but this is most often not the case. We’ll take a look at some tips for landscape drafting and I will show you how to draw with the proper form to create bold, beautiful, and confident lines. READ MORE…
In this article, I’m going to review how to properly setup your drafting board, layout your paper, and create a professional border with titleblock for your illustrative plan. READ MORE…
In this article we will review the proper ways to use a circle template. The circle template is an essential tool for landscape architects and designers for drafting trees, shrubs, furnishings and for making nicely rounded corners or turning radii for plans. READ MORE…
In this article and the next several ones to come, I will be reviewing how to draw a wide array of trees and detailing the specific ways you can use them within a landscape plan, whether it is specimen tree, a grouping of conifers, or just a simple flowering shrub. Today, we will be focusing on drawing one of the basics – ornamental deciduous trees. READ MORE…
In this article, I will continue reviewing how to draw trees in plan, advancing on some of the concepts from our original tree drawing exercises and developing some other graphics to make our base plans stand out. READ MORE…
I discuss how to create landscape design plan symbols for conifers. These are great additions to your landscape designs as they can provide winter/seasonal interest while having a great ornamental impact. READ MORE…
In this article, I cover 5 techniques in order to draw unique symbols to represent specimen trees in your landscape design plan. READ MORE…
6 Key Factors To Consider When Reviewing Landscape Architecture Programs
It can be very difficult to evaluate a college degree program for any subject area and landscape architecture is no different. In this article, I will review 6 key factors that you should consider when looking for future schools in landscape architecture. At the bottom of the article, I also provide a grading rubric which helps streamline this process and formalize your assessment in a single, easy to utilize document.
What Should I Expect From An Internship? Advice for Students and Employers in Landscape Architecture & Design
In this article, I am going to describe some of the most important aspects of a professional internship. The advice should be helpful to students when looking for an internship program to apply for, but this article also should benefit employers on the best practices for running a successful internship.
How To Start A Landscape Design Business: A Six Part Series
In this series of articles, I review some of the fundamental principles you will need to build your own landscape design business from the ground up. Whether you are thinking about becoming a landscape designer or just learning about the green-industry, this six part series should help you on your journey to success.
In this article, I will go over the purpose of this business series and what you can expect to learn from using this guide. If you are just starting your journey to building your own landscape design business, start here. READ MORE…
In this article we are going to begin laying the foundation of a stable and successful professional landscape design business by creating an overall focus and mission for your company, reviewing some common mistakes when first starting out, and detailing the necessary legal structures for new landscape companies. READ MORE…
In this article, we will cover one of the most important parts of starting a new business – analyzing the industry for trends, understanding your potential client base, and how to best position your landscape design company to meet consumer needs. READ MORE…
In this article, we will cover an essential component of building a successful landscape design business – conducting an effective and thorough analysis of your competitors. I truly believe competitor analysis to be more important than both industry and consumer analysis, which is why I am dedicating an entire article on the topic. READ MORE…
In the previous articles, we’ve looked at planning a landscape design business from a research perspective – gaining knowledge and finding your competitive edge. Now, you will need to take action. This article will provide a step by step guide to registering your business, checking licensing requirements, and calculating startup costs for your new landscape design business. READ MORE…
In this article, I will provide an approach to financial planning and marketing specific to the landscape design field that can assist your new company acquiring, booking, and maintaining a reliable customer list for future design and installation projects. READ MORE…
In this article, I will put the finishing touches on this business series and provide you some concluding words of advice I have found to be helpful in my own career – not only as a landscape designer, but also as a professor, father, and husband. READ MORE…
Designer's Block? Try These 4 Techniques To Get The Creativity Flowing
We have all been there. You’ve been working on a design problem for a few weeks, but all of a sudden there is no more “spark” of creativity to keep you going. In this article, I will review 4 techniques which I have found helpful from personal, professional, and educational experience.
Learn Landscape
Drafting
Check out our video series on design drafting. We provide an overview of recommended tools, how to read scales, lettering, and proper drawing techniques.
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