Flesh and bones…

And so we continued – further comments were made on further sketches, and gradually, the bones began to form into the final skeleton of a design. Alex, Jim and I were happy that the space would tell the story we had constructed and that the elements were clear.

But then the bones needed fleshing out. This was a whole new conversation, and was destined to become another lengthy affair.

Yet again, Alex and I congregated at his studio, complete with cakes and tea. Each of us had already made a list of the sort of planting we thought would work, and we set about combining the lists and striking off the no-goers.

A couple of hours later the list was combined and (a little) shorter than when we had started. A conference call to Jim and a few more plants were added. Not many were struck off.

But, a clean and modern design (which is what the space had grown into) needed a clean and cohesive planting list. Long ramblings were not going to cut it, so a ruthless cull was required.

The trouble with a CAD (a Computer Aided Designer…)

A few days later, the papery scribbles had been converted to clean and tidy computer drawings. But there is a distinct danger to on screen designing.

With tracing paper, pens and coloured pencil, drawings are not ‘solid’ and ‘final’. They are still ideas and not yet anything that could ever be built. You can wander past your drawing board eating a biscuit and suddenly see something that could improve the concept. Another scrap of tracing paper later and you have another incarnation. The method is not precious; it is very free and organic.

Get a computer involved, and the design suddenly becomes real.

This is, of course, complete rubbish and purely psychological, and if anything, combining our two designs into one using technology saved a massive amount of time, but all of a sudden, the design had flesh on the bones and could be built. It was a wonderful moment that was full of the realisation of what we were doing.

But what would the rest of the team think? Had we ticked enough of the wish list?

Cupcakes and concepts…

The three way design team is split geographically between the glorious counties of Gloucestershire, East and West Sussex. Fortunately, two of us (as you can see) live very close to one another, so it was decided that Alex and I begin the design work together, getting a concept sorted before running it past the other eyes of the team.

So scribbles in hand, I drove over the Alex’s on yet another grey day in winter to have our first design meeting.

As I was brought up good and proper I will not lie. I was very worried that we would have completely different ideas and the whole exercise would be a nightmare. What if we were coming from different angles? Could we combine our ideas into one design?

Nervously, we both scattered our inky ramblings, sketches and concept images onto the kitchen table, amongst the tea and chocolate cupcakes.

We had very similar ideas. Patterns were from the same pot if not exactly the same, so we overscribbled our scribbles and decided to each solidify our designs and bring them together using the wonders of Computer Aided Design.

The design had begun…

To the drawing board…

All designers work differently, but I think I am pretty safe in saying that most of us start our creative visions with a scrap of paper and whatever pen we can find. After some frantic pen ramblings, we sit back and cast our eyes over the scribbles and usually, ideas, themes and concepts can be found amongst the wandering ink.

But this design was to be different. The design team was to create the garden, not just the usual singular designer. And with three very different designers – all with very particular ways of working, styles and interpretations of the brief, each of our pen ramblings and resulting concepts had the potential to be completely different.

Yet on the flipside we all have very particular strengths and expertise. We all believe in our design principles and what we stand for. Two heads are better than one, and three is, well, more productive.

But could we combine all of our individual ramblings and concepts into one cohesive design worthy of the 25th anniversary celebrations?