[RootRot]

BRAND NEW to the GTX, can't beleive I have not found you all until now.

I was curious if anyone does a "quick design" or consultation type drawing for clients. I worked as the landscape designer for several years at two different high volume retail nurseries in the area. For quite some time I did full scale 24x36" designs on a typical drafting table for all my design customers. I then took Mike Lin's drawing class at an ANLA seminar and things have never been the same. A few years later I now own a small design/build company and do 90%+ of my plan view drawings on the spot at the homeowner's house in an average of about 3-4 hours. The drawings are obviously not to scale or rendered in color but with a plot plan and a pretty decent eye I have been able to acurately determine plant numbers, soil, stone for walls, and mulch. Other materials and even the ones just mentioned definitely require a formal estimate with measurements, etc.

I have never worked for a large landscaping company so I am curious if anyone else out there currently or have in the past used these methods for design and if you have any advice, or run into any problems with it. My own experience has been two fold with clients being overwhlemed and excited that I drew this for them on the spot and are more than ready to take the next step and on the other hand, some houses have lacked a bit of creativity that may have made it to a plan had I spent 8-15 hours in an office thinking about it.

Anyway, I am sure the LA's out there are freaking out about this, or maybe not.

I am still a baby in this industry, I look forward any posts. Thanks...

[Stonehenge]

Hello Rootrot,

Welcome to the site. I've seen the ads and even the book put out by Mike Lin - the drawing class looked very interesting, but I couldn't justify the cost (latest 1-week class was $1,500, I believe).

I think that if you can work the client into a froth with a minimum of effort, that's great. I would think you'd need to have a very good handle on all of your costs, and have it all firmly burned into your brain to be able to design and price on the spot. Not sure I could pull that off.

I think I'd also suffer from what you mention - sometimes the juice just is not flowing when I meet with a client; they expect we to zip off one or two brilliant ideas while we chat, and sometimes all I can muster is one bad idea....but given the time to put some thought into a design, I can usually improve on that.

I'm curious to know how the class went, the style of teaching used, and it you feel you got value from the class.

Jeff

[RootRot]

Mike Lin offers the week long course for the around the price you mentioned or possibly more than that, but he also does a 2 - 3 day course as well which is what I took at the ANLA seminar. I think the cost was around $400-500 for that. It was definitely worth it as the nursery I worked for at the time paid for it, not me. The class covers a lot of rendering techniques which is great for those who present perspectives and elevation drawings to clients. Hard to explain properly but he is all about speed while presenting a good looking drawing and not losing the creativity of the design (which is not always possible). The class is very motivating and I was pumped up to go out and draw after leaving the class. I would take the 2-3 day course again if he came around this area, even if I had to pay for it. The week long course, I dunno if I could muster up the cash for that one.

Just a note though, I don't give the estimate on the spot, just the design. Again the majority of folks are pretty excited and ready to go to the next step and that point the estimating is taken back to the office. If I get "writer's block" and lack the creativity I tend to to bring the drawing back to the office as well but it it is still not a to scale drawing.

[GLAN]

I sometimes do quick sketching while at the property taking measurements and or with the prospective customer when discussing plant material and what they vision within their minds it to look like.

I then take it home and work it all out.

Yes......doing some doodling with the customer running through ideas does get them excited and more open minded when we meet for the presentation.

[LandArts]

Some of my clients are definitely asking for instant sketches. The problem is my meager drawing skills left the building when we went CAD. It would be a neat thing to offer.

[agla]

We had a long thread quite a while back about some other quick sketc methods for people that did not have formal training or gifted drawing skills. This might be useful to some that have not been here very long:
Landscape Plans

[HardDaysKnight]

Thanks Agla for bringing that thread back to life. Awesome
post as well. A wealth of information that I can't wait to
practice and apply.

[trees]

Agla, your previous post is great!

I have another very effective method for on-site sketches. I started this because a few years ago I lost a 20k job to another designer that had a laptop with that cheapo photo-rendering software. The customer liked my ideas better, but looking at the photo with the "finished" product made a bigger connection.

What I do is this: I'll ask the customer for some photos of the area to be landscaped that they wouldn't mind me keeping. I then pull out the sharpie & draw right on the picture a few of my ideas. I'm not the world's best artist, either, but a few stick drawings of trees, some blobs for shrubs and arching lines for grasses, perennials, etc. and it really gives the client an idea of what you're talking about. Turn the photo over and rough out a plan view with names of plants & it'll help them to begin getting a feeling for what a 2d plan is all about. I also would do this at the nursery for people that brought pictures in & it really sold a lot of plants.

For my new design business, I'm considering getting one of those portable photo printers so I can take some digital pics of my own, print & draw on them on site. Putting this with your field notes also really helps refresh your memory when it's time to sit down at the computer (or drafting table) and do the plan for real.

[GLAN]

I can't tell you how helpfull it is taking a photo when doing the initial consult with the client, printing it out in the office having it available when creating designs......

Now if I can just remember to take the camera with me..

[desynerguy]

I used to do on site sketches but found it a bit difficult and not pro looking. I changed this year and took the info the client gave me and told them.....I like to do a quick computer sketch because then we have a copy on hard drive, to scale and there is no discrepancy! This works great. It takes no time to do on dynascape and then you can always come back to it. It is also easier to price. I priced it on an hourly basis and the cost including a site visit amounted to about 1.5-2 hours. A small price for a client to pay. I have not had anyone not like it yet.
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Desynerguy