Ready, Set, Design!

Who This Book Is For

If you are a floral designer who wants to achieve a higher level of professional skill and professional recognition, this book is for you.

In it, I share a method that I have used myself, and that I have also shared with students at my school. This method can help designers improve their skill and confidence by developing a repertoire of ideas that are original and creative, but also tested and versatile.

Specifically, the method was originally created to help floral designers prepare for the testing process that they will undergo in order to achieve professional certification and accreditation, and also for participation in floral design competitions. Both situations usually involve a “surprise package” as perhaps the most stressful and demanding component.

But the value of the method extends beyond these two challenges (in-person evaluation and floral design competitions). Anybody who has worked in a commercial florist business can agree that in that setting, whether it is a full-service retail flower shop or a studio geared to weddings and events, your
daily challenge is actually a kind of surprise package design test.

You might work at an artisan bouquet shop that requires you to create a custom design for each order. Your daily job is then to meet or exceed demands similar to those of a “surprise package” design challenge. Whether you are the person who’s
ordering fresh flowers and supply materials for your shop, or a designer who needs to work with the materials ordered by someone else, you don’t order
flowers every time you have a new order or project. You work with what you have in your cooler and on your shelves to meet customers’ requests.

Or perhaps you work as a line chef at a very busy high-volume retail shop that handles lots of recipe designs (designed by your senior designer and offered
on the website for customers to order). Your job is to copy those recipe designs. Still, you have a challenge as you copy them, as often you have to substitute ingredients. Substitution is not a simple A to B proposition. You need to understand the key points of the recipe design in order to recreate it successfully.

So, everything you do as a professional floral designer amounts to giving the best performance you can, under “surprise package” conditions. That’s why practice and study with this book will empower you as a seasoned professional floral designer.

About the author

Author profile

Jeanne Ha CFD AIFD

Park Florist | Website

Jeanne Ha, AIFD, CFD, is the owner of a successful retail florist business and a founder and instructor of a school for the teaching of floral design and business. She is internationally recognized as a floral designer and as an AIFD Certified Floral Evaluator/Judge.