Design Thinking and Holiday Greetings

Following is our e-newsletter, sent on 12/22/06. You can subscribe here.

People Are Drawn To Good Design

"As consumers invest more time and money into what they buy, a growing number of companies are placing heavy emphasis on design."

This quote kicks off the article entitled "With Good Looks Come Big Profits" at Inc.'s online magazine. Hey, we're in the design business! This is good news for us.

Read the article at inc.com...

Last Week's Course

We just finished our very first course last week! It was an intimate group of enthusiastic designers, most local to the Chicago area, with one from Michigan. We had a great time and it was exciting to see the progress every single person made in just 5 short days.

In fact, we want to give others the opportunity to have the same experience, so Sissinghurst will be offered again in January.

There are a couple of schedule changes you can read about here. For anyone interested in taking advantage of the Early Bird Tuition AND the 2-4-1 (two for one) offer, the E.B. deadline for the 1/22 course has been extended to 12/26. After that, the 2-4-1 is still available, but at the full price. Still a smokin' deal!

Check back at aaldweb.com in the coming days for further updates.


Design Thinking

We talked a lot about “design thinking” last week. What exactly is “design thinking”? Funny enough, I thought it was a phrase I’d coined, but a quick visit to Google says otherwise. It seems to be used differently by different people though.

As we use the term, “design thinking” has to do with approaching your business, your sales and marketing process, even the language you use, with the same mind set you use to design a landscape. And vice versa.

Consider the concept of the transition. On a news broadcast, you’ll hear reporters use the word “segue.” That’s how they transition from one story to another. We use transitions to connect different spaces within the landscape, or to connect landscape to architecture. In our businesses, we ought to consider (and choreograph) how we transition from initial contact with a potential client, through the design process, and into construction. “Design thinking” helps us put those puzzle pieces together. Successful use of design thinking will also improve the way we communicate our design ideas to clients so that they get excited about the project. If they get excited about it, they feel good, and our chances for the project to proceed improve. These are but a few examples.

Winter Conferences

For those of you in Toronto, I’ll be speaking at the Landscape Ontario Congress on January 8 and 9, 2007. On January 17, I’m on the agenda at the Mid Am Trade Show in Chicago. Hope to see you there.

Have a great Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years and any and every other occasion you might celebrate this time of year! Enjoy the season!


Tim

Who Is This Guy?

Who is this guy?
One of the reasons the Academy has an Advisory Board is to have reliable people with whom to discuss ideas. One of them suggested I do something I'm not accustomed to: Brag. Well, not brag exactly. He suggested that many people out there might want to know why they should trust their money and time to the American Academy of Landscape Design. What does Tim have to offer? Who exactly is he and what qualifies him to teach me or my employees?

Well, here goes.

I graduated from Duke University in 1986 with a degree in Landscape Design. To this day it is highly likely that I am still the only person on the planet to be honored by Duke with such a degree. Without going into too much detail, Duke allows a student to design his or her own major. Why do such a thing? It's complicated, but suffice it to say that as a sophomore English major, I found myself surrounded by pre-law students. Yeah, I know. I had to get out. Duke did not have a major that fit me, so I made my own.

Good or bad, I've always been one to question the "norm" and explore other routes. The AALD follows that same path.

From Duke, I went to England's Inchbald School of Design. It was not accredited at the time, though it is now a Masters program. ("If you want to study cooking, go to France; if you want to study gardens, go to England," I reasoned.). After a year of intense, life-changing study, I returned home to the Chicago area and ultimately put up a shingle and started Garden Concepts.

Now, 18 years later, the American Academy of Landscape Design is born.

In those 18 years (here's the bragging part), my company has been successful in many areas. Following is a sampling from the resume.

Press Mentions
Have had mentions, interviews, projects profiled, or written articles in more than 60 publications. Although many are magazines and newspapers, included in these numbers are 5 Sunset Books, one This Old House book, a Harris Publications project called Backyard Ideas by Barbara Ballinger due out in spring 2007 (7 projects included), and an English book called The Book of Plans for Small Gardens by Andrew Wilson due out in 2007(4 projects included). In 2006 we also had a project featured in Better Homes and Gardens. Some details are here, though the list is not completely up to date.

Awards
Have won awards from ASLA, APLD, PPA and ILCA, including APLD's Harry Schuster Service Award in 2002.

Industry Connections and Credentials
APLD certified (lifetime); Full member of ASLA; certified arborist (ISA); past president of APLD (1998-99) member of its Past Presidents Council; founding member and first president of Midwest Chapter of APLD. Recently left the board of the Landscape Design Association after nearly 10 years. Member of the following organizations: ANLA, APLD, ASLA, GWA (Garden Writers Association), LDA, MNLA. OLA (Ohio), PPA, PLANET (Michigan), VNLA (Virginia). More on the geeky side, I'm also a member of American Mensa and the Conjuror's Corner magic club.

Lecturing/Speaking
Have spoken to many different groups in 11 different states and Canada. For testimonials about teaching and lecturing, see here.

For some design client testimonials, see here.

Honestly, probably my least favorite topic is myself. I'd much rather talk about Duke Basketball, the Cubs' prospects for next year (Fonzi has arrived!), or (dare I say it?) the Bears' chances to reach the big game in February. Thanks for bearing with me. So if you'd like to discuss any of those topics, or landscape design, please give me a call. Or we can talk pinewood derby, health and fitness or magic tricks!

2-4-1 still available for Jan and Feb courses. See here.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." --Albert Einstein
Imagination is a tool critical to good design. Join us to sharpen your creative tools.