Photo by DustwaveStock
Fingers crossed, by spring I’ll have a degree in landscape design.
Pretty exciting!
But that means right now, I’m taking classes where I have to come up with, well, ideas. And, for me, that can often be one of the most time consuming parts of a design. But, you know, I’ve come up with some ways to make it a little easier, a little quicker, and (I hope) a lot better.
Here’s my process.
Be inspired
This is something I try to do constantly and consistently, not just when I have to design something. I actively look for inspiration all around me, every day. In particular, I pay attention to how other people design landscapes and gardens, and if something about that space appeals to me, I take a picture (with permission, of course!). I keep those pictures filed away to look at later, when I’m trying to come up with my own ideas.
Read. A lot.
Well, I’m a voracious reader. So, I read a lot no matter what! But more and more I read books related to landscape design, creativity, the artistic process. I try to glean all I can from them. You can find some of my favorites here.
Collect Seed Catalogs
Most seed catalogs are full of beautiful pictures of the plants they advertise, and they’re also full of great information. There are so many plants out there, and the more I know about them, the better my designs will be. Plus, I tend to keep a few copies of seed catalogs on my bookshelf for reference or to help me generate ideas. If you want to check out some of my favorite seed catalogs, read this post!
Collect Ideas
I use Pinterest to collect good ideas I find online, as well as designs I like. For me, it’s a very powerful tool because it is a visual collection of ideas. When I’m struggling to get an idea, I’ll visit one of my landscape design boards and just look at the pretty pictures. More often than not, this breaks through a wall and helps me be more creative.
Think Outside the Box
It’s easy to focus on things that are directly related to gardening and landscape design, but I find that some of my favorite ideas are born when I surround myself with other type of inspiration. For instance, lately I’ve spent more time looking at works of art, focusing on pieces that appeal to me. I also listen to tons and tons and tons of podcasts on all sorts of subjects: cooking, science, books, philosophy, history. It amazes me how often I can trace an idea back to something I listened to, something that had nothing to do with gardening.
Develop My Style
I’m in the early stages of this. I’m very interested in the use of edibles in the landscape, as well as incorporating sustainable aspects into a design. I’m a very practical sort of person, and I like the idea of a space being useful as well a beautiful.
Stylistically, I find myself most drawn to uncluttered spaces. I like strong lines and empty spaces, and while geometrically shaped plants aren’t my thing, I do like it when I see triangles and squares and other strong shapes in the hardscaping or sculptures of a garden. And, I love it when space is used in a way that invites people into it, or draws them into the landscape. I like a little bit of psychology and storytelling worked into a design.
But I’m still putting that all together, still trying to figure out what kind of style that might actually be, and it’s constantly evolving. The key here is that I don’t put pressure on myself to be a certain type of designer, or only use a certain style. I think that will develop naturally with time and experience.
Step Away and Sleep On It
There always seems to be a point, early on in the process, usually, where I hit this mental block. I get stuck. At that point, I usually step away from the project for a few hours, or even a day. Whenever I try to hard to “be creative,” that seems to be when I am actually the least creative, when I have the most trouble forming ideas. When that happens, I need to let my brain rest and work on the problem in the background. This is something I’ve done all my life, when I’m trying to solve a problem and I can’t quite get there. 99% of the time, if I go clean, or sleep, or do something pretty mindless, all of a sudden inspiration will hit. I don’t know if it’s like that for everyone, or just for me, but, it’s a surefire way to overcome a block!
So, there you go! That’s my creative process! What about you? How do you find inspiration or deal with creative blocks?
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