If it has an Engine
Hadlow Show Garden
I went along to see the Show Garden that my good friend Whitney designed for Hadlow College.
Outstanding design and followed the brief to perfection. A ‘Top Gold’ (read best in show) was awarded, and rightly so….
So why was it so good?
Well these are just my humble observations
1) Balance, the ratio between soft/hard/water and the building was perfect
2) No Full stops, meaning that the viewer tended to look at the whole picture rather than just hot spots of design. Thus leading them in to explore further and notice the detail.
3) Journeys, plenty of them each leading to a destination, very hard to do in a small space.
4) Space, or the use of in the sense that the seating tended to be in the furthest corner thus back to the wall and more impression of space.
5) Tones, of the planting flowed interspersed with neutral whites to lift the strong orange/burnt yellows out.
6) Humour and idea’s, well we are British and we love a quirky idea.
A few photo’s
As usual got a bit involved trying to do the art picture and forgot to take any overall pictures, hopefully Whit will put some up on her blog about the process of the site
Well done Whitney!
A small update on a Garden (alas no funds to do the lot)
Always difficult matching your own work with other, in this case a builders ‘attempt’ and some DIY, so tried to match and improve, but with one eye on the future ie more updates so a bit of a balancing act.
Materials and issues
Every space throws up issues, in this case small, all grass removed, gradient falling towards the house, sleepers everywhere.
The main solution was to provide a new soak away (new crate system wrapped in geotextile felt). Volume .5m cubed (100m2 =1m cubed for well drained soils) for 25m2 area. Slit gully for ascetics, with an adapted ‘p’ trap gully to trap any fines and access for cleaning. All falls 1-80/100. Normal type one compacted/6 to 1 sharp sand mix for slabs, pointed with buff resin system (which if you pay for the proper German stuff is brilliant and quick, sorry Jamie i disagree with you on this one, now i’ll go and dive for cover).
Planting
Worked on yellow and ochre as colours to reflect the colours of the slabs plus to give a warm feel to the whole area. Worked with perennials for the best display albeit for the summer only, a case of a good display for the height of the outdoor season or compromise with spots of colour through out the year… no brainer as far as i am concerned in this situation.
Contrasting shapes with and narrow colour range to keep the effect.
Blown up images
They seemed very popular with a couple of requests for prints (though i will be keeping the day job).
Worked on a couple thus far, better placement of main characters, a bit of, err covering up, lifting via colour.
Degree
Two shows, lots of friends and family came along to support. I have had so many meals off the back of this (still a few to go) what a great crowd of generous people i know.
An old cycling/running/swimming buddie and general good all round egg, bought me a graduation present which may be of interest to mac users with old lap tops.
Macupgrades.co.uk (google it)
500mb hard drive nothing spectacular in that, but within it a 4gb solid state drive. The idea being the S/S drive is fast and does all the regular work and leaving the Hard Drive (7200rpm) to take up the rest. really works like a dream, rocket ship. No need to upgrade the lap top for a couple more years. (purchased 2006).
So apart from all the good will and presents any other conclusions?
Confidence has improved, but most of all just the fact that social mobility is possible if given the chance.
Hard work is rewarded, left-field thinking in the right environment is a bonus, photoshop is the modern paint pallet and finally the spectrum of design is broad, so even not every one gets it, not a problem as thats the beauty of the diversity of humanity.
So what hasn’t changed?
My modernist view that form and function will always be closly related. The idea to benefit people (or the end user if you like), still its not about designer more what you can give to enrich peoples lives within the opens spaces that we are resposible for, if its not adopted by the public then its a failiure. Most of the designs that fail, fail to communicate what thier purpose is and thus get ignored or even despised. If there is any kind of pretentiousness behind the design, (ie don’t preach, lead by example) it will be picked up especially by the British public.
Some images that were blown up for the MA show
They seem to go down well, doing my ‘painterly’ thing that Jekyll was famous for, though maybe not up to her standard.
Trick
I almost forgot (and have updated). when building a site with your fave font (futura and gill sans in my case) and are not sure whether your average site user will have it (if they don’t then a default font will take its place, normally ruining your design) then you have to think laterally.
Remember some old pc’s and new versions for example don’t have futura or gill sans which is unbelievable or should i take a hint.
Back to the task, duplicate your written work turn it to the back ground colour you have chosen. Put it behind your original work, this will be picked up as written work by internet search spiders.The written work above turn into an image.
On iweb this is simple, put a shadow on the work the SAME colour as the background, (thus it will not show up) this will automatically turn it into an image.
If you know HTML have a look and you will see it in the code.
It works, so now updated so everyone can see the Herculanum font i have used as my logo for Park life.
To check (especially if you are a mac user) find an old pc and look via the web.
http://web.me.com/hixondesign/Parklife
Site
Built a web site with apple iweb so no flash, but has come out alright.
Enjoy, any constructive criticism welcome.
http://web.me.com/hixondesign/Parklife
Time……
But who put all those Hurdles in the way?
Well thats how it feels, but we all occupy the same boat, though Adele seems to be swimming at the mo.
Well working like the proverbial on the planting scheme lost count how may days, keep changing my mind, then visualise and think……. too many ,too few, too busy not exciting enough..then i run out of steam and have to go to bed, only to wake up stupid early and start working and go through the same thing again. So put it to one side for a mo and finished a couple.
Levels and Spot Heights
Quick Chai…MMMMmmmm
Just an update on the mood board.
Line drawn 1;50 resolved a few issues and found a few.
It's about people, stupid... 