The Design Parti – A Communication Tool

A concept that I have been intending to write about for some time is “parti”.   A parti is usually a sketch, diagram, drawing, doodle, or some other graphic that represents the direction, concept, or theme of a design.  The concept of parti is common in architecture.  It is also used in other design disciplines.  It is seldom mentioned in conjunction with landscape design however.  That is part of the reason why I have not written about this concept until now.  The other reason is that a parti is a vague concept.

A parti diagram does not necessarily represent what the design will look like when it is done.  It is usually not a polished diagram.   It can be very rough; the proverbial back of a napkin sketch.  Parti has been defined as “the big idea”, “the central concept”, “the essence of the design”, “the design approach”, “the core element” and numerous other ways.  In almost every case a parti is described as conveying the meaning, form, direction, essence, scheme, approach, or some other aspect of a design.  If you are confused about what a parti actual is, I was too initially.

The first thing that was unclear is when in the design process a parti is actually created.  The answer is that you create a parti after you have some analysis completed.  You have to know where you have opportunities and where you have limitations.  You have to know the client’s requirements.  You should understand what functionality you need to provide.  You should have created at least some bubble diagrams and prepared an adjacency analysis.  In most cases a parti is going to come after some level of form composition analysis also.  You may create several form compositions that you evaluate as potential starting points for your design.  That being said, creating a parti comes after having a thorough understanding of the site, the client, and the functional and spatial aspects of your design.

The second confusing aspect of a parti was how it fit into the creative or generative portion of the design process.  A parti is described as a vision and/or an inspiration.  A parti is also shown as being a result or an output of one or more design concepts.  Creating the parti comes after developing conceptual designs.  Your source or inspiration for your conceptual designs may come from the site, the surrounding area, the client, the environment, or some other source.  Your client may have a love of camping that leads you to develop a concept based on nature.  The client residence may be of a Spanish style architecture that leads you do develop a Mediterranean theme concept.  There a numerous possibilities.

So what exactly does a parti do?  Why should you create one?  I think a parti is a communication tool.  It communicates the intent of your design concept.  In A Visual Dictionary of Architecture (1995), Frank Ching defines a parti as “the basic scheme or concept for an architectural design represented by a diagram.”  The parti should communicate something about the form as well as the concept.  Ideally, your parti will communicate the experience you intend to create.  It should depict something about the functional, sensory, and/or emotional aspects of your design concept.

I am not convinced a parti has to be a diagram or sketch.  A picture, an object, maybe even a simple storyboard may serve the purpose of a parti.  Which leads to the second question; why create a parti?

Anything that we can create that will make conveying our design intent to the client easier and more effective is a good thing.  We all live in a world of headlines.  We are flooded with information.  We scan e-mails for important subjects.  We skim newspapers for headlines.  The 30 second sound byte is the norm.  Imagine the power of a diagram or simple graphic that you can show the client and they will immediate see what you want to do.  Maybe your plan view does that.  Or maybe you created a perspective illustration that conveys everything the client needs to know.  You may not need a parti in every design.  However, if you can create one, it would certainly add value to your client presentation.

There is one very important difference in how and why a parti is used in architecture versus landscape design.  In architecture the designer is working in a third dimension in creating a building or structure.  That is not to say landscape design does not involve height or structural elements.  The mass of a structure just does not impose upon our designs the way it does in building architecture.  This is why I think our use or interpretation of a parti can be different.

As I said earlier, a small storyboard may be what you need to convey your parti.  Maybe there was an object or something that you saw that inspired your design concept.  A picture of that object may be your parti or a part of it.  Maybe one of your form compositions can be modified to express more fully the design concept.  Again, what we are looking for is a communication tool.  The format or media does not really matter.

One last point about the value of a parti.  I have read in several places that a parti should “anchor the design”.  In other words, when a design issue or question arises, you should be able to go back to the parti for answers.  In other posts I have mentioned the value of graphic tools such as a client profile, journey boards, inspiration boards, etc. to facilitate the design process.  A parti can serve the same purpose.  It communicates the intent of your design concept to your client.  Having your parti in front of you while you are designing will serve as a constant visual reminder of your design intent.

How Many Designs Do You Create for a Client?

An interesting post in the Designers on Design blog today titled “Plan B“.  The thrust of the post by Danilo P. Maffei, APLD, is that only one design should be created for the client; there is no need for a backup plan if you know the first or primary plan is your best work and it is the right design for the client.  His argument is that not only does it take more time; it also makes us less committed to the success of our primary plan.  There are several interesting follow-up comments to the post.  The post and comments are well worth reading.

I believe the best approach is to have one single final design unless the client specifically asks for multiple designs and is willing to pay for them.  In this case, each plan should meet the same criteria in terms of meeting the client’s requirements.  Serving up two completely different designs that meet the same requirements means a substantial amount of additional work in terms of validating that each design provides the same functionality and meets the client’s needs.  The only way this could vary is if the client asked for two or more plans that provided different functions or were based on different budgetary or time constraints.

If there is a need for experimentation or consideration of alternatives, that should come during pre-design.  Frequently during the ideation phase I work through iteratively.  Based on some usage scenarios I try to understand the adjacency requirements and prepare a few bubble / functional diagrams.  Then, I will shift gears and start looking at potential form compositions.  After generating some ideas I will go back to my bubble / functional diagrams and see how they work within the form composition ideas I have generated.  I may start looking more closely at traffic flow or other issues.  Two or three of these ideas may be worth pursuing in more detail and may be considered as potential starting points for preliminary designs.  Preparing more than one preliminary design is acceptable and may be worthwhile from the standpoint of validating the client’s requirements.

The point of design validation is to make sure that all of the alternatives, choices, and issues are resolved before the final design is completed.  Completely validating a design implies that the one and only final design meets the client’s needs.  It should match the client’s style and tastes.  It should include the hardscape and softscape elements that the client prefers or will be happy with.  If the design has been fully validated there should be no need for a Plan B.

How and When to Use a Prototype

Prototyping is a technique used in design, in many different disciplines.  The term is seldom used in the context of landscape design.  In other design disciplines, prototyping can be used to:

• Show a proof of concept
• Gather requirements
• Validate requirements
• Explore solutions or resolve specific design issues

Within any design discipline there may be several methods or approaches to prototyping.  The objective is usually the same; create a representation of the design objective to show how it will work and/or look.  The prototype may be a car, a retail product, an information system, an airplane, or a web site.  As I mentioned in my last post, prototypes, as a representation, have a fidelity or degree of realism.  Low fidelity prototypes are less realistic.  High fidelity prototypes often appear to be completed projects.

Fidelity is most commonly evaluated on two levels.  Visual fidelity or how realistic does it look, and functional fidelity or how realistic does it perform.  These two criteria are not mutually exclusive.  A prototype can have both high visual and high function fidelity.

How and why these two criteria matter is important.  As a rule, higher fidelity means more time to develop the prototype, which essentially means more cost.  Depending upon your objective you may be better off creating a lower fidelity prototype, quicker, at less cost.  In other cases, a high fidelity prototype may be needed.  A good designer will use the right fidelity prototype to accomplish the specific objective.

Prototypes can be applied at just about any point in the design process.  You can use them before the project is even a project as a proof of concept (i.e., there is room to build both a pool and a deck).  You can use them during the requirements gathering stage.  They can be valuable during design development.  A prototype makes a great sales aid during a client presentation.  Lastly, a prototype can even be valuable during the build or construction phase.

The question is, how does it apply to landscape design?  My next post will answer that question.

The Case for Electronic Ideation

This is a third follow-up to a post in January about gathering client and site data [Gathering Data: Challenges, Irony, and Value].  The questions raised in that post were:

• how much information do you need to collect?
• how do you record the information so that it is accessible and usable?
• how do you organize, display, review, combine, correlate, and otherwise manipulate all this material?
• how do you reduce the data to its essential components?

In February, I did a follow-up to the first question in my post: The Case for Gathering More Information.  Several days ago, I did the second follow-up post:  The Case for Recording Client and Site Data Electronically.  This post will deal with the third and fourth questions:  how do you organize, display, review, combine, correlate, and otherwise manipulate all this material, and how do you reduce the data to its essential components?

This is a hard issue because there are numerous approaches that you could take to start the organization and ideation process.  One of the most basic is to start laying pictures, drawings, etc. out on a large table or posting them on a wall or board.  This is essentially a mind mapping or brainstorming approach.  Seeing all the pieces at one time together can stimulate your thinking and help you make connections.  It may help identify conflicts or interrelated issues.  The value of information or data is usually in the connection to other pieces of information and data.  Knowing a whole bunch of things doesn’t help unless to put them all together and make sense of them.

I tend to find the paper-based methods slow.  If I lay out drawings, plans, pictures, and other visual data I usually want to supplement it with some of my notes and thoughts.  This means writing out things on Post-it notes or note cards and positioning them in the mix of other things.  Having the paper laid out or posted on a wall makes it visible and it is easy to move things around or replace things.  However, the one thing I really find the most limiting is that it is not portable.  I have to be in front of it to see it, work with it, and analyze it.

My preference is to create my project brainstorming or ideation board electronically.  I have used different software tools to do this.  PowerPoint has some advantages as does Photoshop.  You can even use DynaSCAPE albeit with some constraints.  There are probably other software tools to do the same types of things.

I will use PowerPoint as an example since it is more familiar to more people.  The basic process is to create a new PowerPoint file with a single slide.  If you think you want to print it out later on a large format printer then format the slide size to 24×36 or some other large size.  Then simply start inserting your electronically stored content.

Maybe the base plan goes into the center.  Place digital photos around the edges representing their orientation toward the plan.  Everything will need to be sized.  However, just get the elements into rough position.  The nice thing about electronic format is that you can size up and down and drag things into a different position.  If you want to add comments or thoughts from your notes, simply copy them from your electronic notes and paste them into text boxes in PowerPoint.  You can then move them around, size them, and even color-code them.  If there are pictures of ideas or elements that you want to consider, copy and paste them into the slide.  Size and position them where they belong.  If something is important, increase the size, make the font bold, or color the background so it stands out.

I tend to use the outside edges and corners for other things such as the client profile or color swatches.  If the clients give me pictures or clippings of things they like I can sample colors and build a color palette to work from.  I usually put the client profile in a corner so I keep it visible.  Other random ideas may come up and again I place those on the edges so I don’t forget them.  If I see where they fit in later, I simply drag them into position.

Just like using a wall or tabletop, you may run out of room or have to reduce the size of some content just to fit it in.  You can use the drawing tools to make lines, arrows, or other symbols to help you focus on elements.  This isn’t really any different than creating a mood board, concept board, story board, or any other display board.  The only real difference is that it is for your ideation purposes.

Two of the main advantages of the electronic project board are that you can easily update it with new ideas, pictures, or any other content and it is portable.  If I have it on my laptop I can take it with me and work on it whenever I have time.  If I get an idea for some portion of the design, I can simply pull up the file and make the addition.

Where I find real value in the electronic approach is in two techniques; versioning and focusing.  Versioning is essentially an approach where you create an initial project board electronically and then copy it to start modifying it.  Maybe you have a couple of ideas of now you might approach the design.  Make copies of the original project board and modify each copy for a particular design approach.  Each is a version of the original board but with a different design concept.  You can use these to make decisions or bounce ideas off your clients.

Focusing is a variation where you make a copy of the project board but eliminate everything not related to a specific area.  If you are focusing on the entertaining area, eliminate everything else and build on that project board as a separate piece.  You can repeat this for other specific areas.  This also allows you to scale things up since you are dealing with a smaller area.  When you are done you can copy in each of the separate pieces to the overall project board to see how they fit and work together.

The project board is really a tool for you but you can use it to bounce ideas off the client.  This is a form of versioning.  If I want to use my material for a client discussion, I make a duplicate copy of it and then tweak it for client presentation.  I usually have to take it to a print shop to have a large-format copy printed, but this gives me a working document I can use with the client for discussions.

Lastly, material from you project board is a like many other things, a candidate for reuse.  As you move into the project, some of your content may be repurposed for other portions of your design work, analysis, or client presentation.  Working electronically to compile all of your data and information will save you time, leverage your work, and give you more flexibility to explore alternatives.

Design Boundaries and the Validation Process

Design is partially an opportunity to make sense of something.  It is a chance to understand an environment, a space, a client, and a myriad of other things related to the project.  Design is also an opportunity to change something.  In the case of landscape design, that something is usually the space.  You can seldom change the environment.  You can disguise or enhance it, make it more attractive, make it more pleasant, and work within its constraints in other ways.  You cannot change the context of the site.  A space is located within the confines of its neighborhood, community, etc.  Although you might be able to change the client via education, logic, and reason, that usually isn’t our primary focus.

Analysis is the part of design where you make sense of things.  You are looking at the client, context, environment, and everything else that might possibly affect your design.  A fundamental part of analysis is determining boundaries.  Those boundaries are where you cannot change things.  They limit you.  They constrain you.  They challenge you.  They test your design creativity.  Analysis is learning and knowing everything you can about a site and client and it is also knowing where your boundaries lie.  What can you not do and what can you not change.  There are multiple boundaries.  There are the physical boundaries of the property.  There are the contextual boundaries of the location.  The client’s taste, preferences, and budget impose boundaries.  So where is the room for creativity?

The design process and design product are intertwined but two very distinct things.  Knowing what is within your sphere of influence and what is outside it is an integral part of the process.  Analysis helps you define the working space.  That is the making sense part of design.

Synthesis is where you start creating your conceptual design based on your analysis and your understanding of the boundaries.  What can you create that meets the functional requirements and works within the constraints and boundaries that you face?  Can you push a boundary or take it to its absolute limits?  Can you make a boundary inconsequential by creatively working around it?  Boundaries and constraints create challenges but they give us the opportunity to develop creative solutions.

Part of the design validation process is making sure that you have worked within your constraints and stayed within the boundaries that were imposed on you.  Your design program should have noted the imposed limitations, constraints, boundaries, etc.  However, you should begin validating against them during synthesis when you are developing conceptual designs.  Design validation is applied to the design to make sure that the design will work for the client and that the design does not exceed the project boundaries.

Elaboration / Reduction Cycles

Gathering client needs and site data is an exercise in elaboration.  We want to increase and expand what we know about the client and the site and we want to look for opportunities.  Those opportunities may come from the client’s lifestyle or interests, some aspect of the site, or from the context of the surrounding properties, neighborhood, etc.  After we gather data and uncover potential opportunities the analysis / synthesis process is an exercise in reduction.  We want to take all of the data and information we have, and reduce it to its essential elements; a set of prioritized and focused needs and requirements.  At this point, we begin another exercise in elaboration; exploring design concepts and possibilities.  Of all the opportunities and possibilities that are available, which ones will work best with our criteria and meet our needs.  Paring that evaluation down into a focused design solution is another exercise in reduction.  The diagram below depicts this process.

Elaboration Reduction Cycles

The transition points between elaboration and reduction correspond with the key validation points within the validation design process model.

Elaboration / Reduction Phase	Key Validation Points	Results
Elaboration	End of Data Gathering	All client needs and site data identified and captured
Reduction	End of Analysis / Synthesis	Focused and prioritized requirements
Elaboration	End of Creative Development	All potential design solutions considered
Reduction	Client approval of Design Program	Focused design solution

Iterative approaches to design are frequently perceived as being used strictly to refine, narrow, and focus the information we have and make design decisions.  However, part of the design process is exploration.  The elaboration portions of the design process are where that exploration occurs.  Effectively using reduction to narrow information and data into manageable sets combined with elaboration to explore design possibilities improves the results of the design process.  The transition points between elaboration and reduction also fit into the validation design process model and support obtaining what we need to validate the design as we move through the process.

The Analysis-Synthesis Interrelationship

One of the questions that arises in discussing the design process is the concept of Synthesis; specifically the analysis-synthesis relationship.  Analysis seems to be more universally understood; or at least people seem to think they understand it.  Synthesis is the gray area to many people.  What does it mean?  What is it?  How does synthesis follow or flow from analysis?  A common explanation of analysis and synthesis is that analysis is taking things apart and synthesis is putting things together.  Analysis is really much more than taking things apart.  Synthesis is more than putting things together.

In analysis, you can take a set of data and group or categorize it.  You can split it into more detail data.  You can merge it with other sets of data to see relationships.  You can sort or rearrange the data.  You can strip out portions of the data that have particular characteristics that you want to examine.  The list goes on.  The point being that analysis is a very rich and complex process that has many techniques that are useful in different circumstances.

All of the analytical techniques I have discussed so far provide you with data that can be used in making design decisions and developing your design concept.  A heat map, which is based on client priority rankings, helps you determine which features, spaces, amenities, etc. should have priority.  Form composition allows you to analyze layouts and find the best one for the site and the possible spaces you are considering.  Space adjacency allows you to determine how potential spaces should relate to one another.  Bubble or functional diagrams allow you to look at the ways specific areas can be configured based on your space adjacency analysis.  Each analytical tool provides additional information that helps you refine your decisions and move your design concept forward.  That is synthesis in essence.  You are building understanding and evaluating what you learn to refine your decisions and concepts.  You may develop information from an analysis that causes you to go back and rethink earlier analysis.  That is part of the iterative process.  The nature of the analysis-synthesis relationship is that the two techniques interplay and work with each other to accumulate information that is used and reused to develop your final design concept.

Other things come into play in developing a design concept.  There is the designer’s experience.  There may be a particular feature on the site that can be capitalized on.  The client’s may have a theme or style that they want used.  These are the soft data or qualitative factors that come into play.  They are part of the accumulation of information that is synthesized into the design concept.  They can be just as important if not more important than the data analysis in developing the design.  The analytical tools are the foundation for validation of the design.  They help answer important questions that are the crux of design decisions.

During the analysis-synthesis process, the results of analysis should be evaluated against the hard criteria established for the project.  This includes constraints, budget, feasibility, client needs, and all of the known limitations and opportunities.  Since synthesis is a much more fluid process, the results that come from the process are more evolutionary.  They evolve out of ideation, analysis, preliminary concepts, and other types of soft data.  The concepts that form out of synthesis also need to be evaluated.  However, the criteria is more aesthetic and conceptual.  Do the design concepts developed fit into the style and architecture of the residence?  Do they fit with the image and style we are trying to create?  Are they in line with the ideas that we had?  During either part of the process, analysis, or synthesis, if the answers are not making sense, it is time to step back and re-evaluate.  Again, that is the iterative process.

Design Process Model – The Creative Development Key Validation Point

The third key validation point is at the end of Creative Development.  Like the first two key validation points at the end of Data Gathering and Analysis / Synthesis, this is a threshold point to help you decide if you conceived a preliminary design that addresses all client needs, site issues and opportunities, and the elements in your design program.  The overlap with the Analysis / Synthesis phase is again built in to allow you the opportunity to conduct further analysis if you feel it is warranted.

Key Validation Points

The result or output of Creative Development is a preliminary design to be presented to the client.  This would include any supporting, collateral materials such as digitally enhanced photos, drawings, display boards, samples, etc.

Chances are that by this point you may have already started developing some of these materials.  It can be useful during the last part of Analysis / Synthesis to explore design concepts.  Any of these preliminary materials should be reused or revised if appropriate.  Otherwise, you can begin developing your preliminary design based on the results of the form compositions, functional diagrams, supporting analysis materials, and design program you have created.

Whatever you choose to develop and use in your preliminary design presentation should be reviewed thoroughly to validate that it supports your findings and conclusions developed to this point.  Some evidence of a need or opportunity that you discovered should support each element, feature, benefit, and aspect of the preliminary design.  Going through this exercise is extremely useful in preparing for the client presentation.  You will be fully prepared to explain and justify your design decisions.

A completely validated preliminary design sets the stage for the final phase of design development, which is the creation of your Client Deliverables.  Everything you have done to this point suggests that you have a design concept that should meet all client needs and expectations.  There should not be any issues that would preclude the client from accepting your design.  All of you preliminary design materials can be finalized for presentation to the client.  The preliminary design materials should be reused as much as possible in creating your final deliverables to the client.

Validating you data, analysis, conclusions, and designs minimizes the amount of rework you may need to do.  It is unlikely that the client will completely reject a preliminary design that is thoroughly validated against their needs and the specific requirements of their site.  Also, the high-level model provides for constant client contact and feedback.  Prior to the presentation of the preliminary design, there should have been client contact and feedback from the initial meeting and the review of the design program.  This would be the absolute minimum of client contact.  Interim contact and review sessions should be conducted whenever more information is needed of if it appropriate to obtain client buy-in and concurrence on specific issues.

My last three posts have dealt with the key validation points.  In the next post, I will be reviewing the client contact activities and how they fit into the key validation points and the four phases.

Display Boards – Design Tools and Presentation Tools

Storyboards have been used for a long time as a presentation tool by landscape and other designers.  Variations have been created:  inspiration boards, idea boards, concept boards, mood boards, journey boards, etc.  Sometimes these are used as tools for the designer and other times as presentation tools.  They can also be used as a communication tool within design teams.

Any of these boards can be created physically with poster board or electronically using Photoshop, PowerPoint, or another graphic package.  You can also combine approaches, doing some portions or the structure electronically and mounting anything physical to poster board.  You can also scan physical objects such as material samples to use in electronic versions.

Which approach you use will most likely be determined by your purpose.  An inspiration board for example is usually built up over time.  Collecting samples over time may be more convenient electronically.  However having a physical board in front of you in your office is more likely to provide the intended inspiration.

If you collect pictures or samples for future use, you need a way to store, categorize, access, and retrieve items from your collection.  Electronic filing as graphics is the most efficient and effective.  There are numerous software and online tools for storing graphic images with categories and tags to help you retrieve them.  It depends a lot on what volume of material you have.

The various boards mentioned have two fundamental purposes:  1) creative inspiration and ideation during design and, 2) presentation of designs and design concepts.  As mentioned above they can be used as a communication device with larger design teams.

I tend to work electronically simply for ease of revision.  Anything I need to physically present can be printed on a large format printer.  I also tend not to keep many inspirational graphics stored electronically.  If it is something truly different, or so unusual that I can’t resist it, I store in within folders on my hard disk to make it easy to retrieve.  Since I keep few files on hand, I don’t have a complex filing system.  If I need graphic ideas for a board, I will usually do a search on Google images or Bing images to find something appropriate.

Another big reason for creating electronic boards is reusability.  Even if some small portion of a board can be reuse for another client, I have saved myself that much work.  Since each graphic component is individual, I can delete the ones I do not want to use and add new graphic components.  This also applies to using elements from one type of board to another.  Also, if you find a better image at the last minute, it is much easier to update it electronically.

As far as the various types of boards, the following is my take on the purpose and use of each type.

Inspiration boards are just that.  They are to inspire you.  They are a way of getting ideas going.  Compiling a visual collage of spaces, materials, accent pieces, views, etc. may inspire a new, fresh idea for you to use.  You can also use them to compare and evaluate competing inspirations.  For example, a clean modern in-ground pool versus the natural, built-in pool with surrounding rock and vegetation.  I consider inspiration boards to be a designer or design team tool.  They are not usually used for client presentations.

Idea boards and concept boards are very similar.  I think idea boards come first.  You use them to find your concept.  The idea is the beginning of the concept.  You build the idea and flush it out by adding elements to your idea board.  Some of the ideas may conflict.  Some may be off the wall.  However, like brainstorming when you get enough content and evaluate it long enough, the focus or concept you want to use and build on will jump out at you.

Concept boards are for building the creative and functional aspects of your design.  From your ideas, you have narrowed down a theme or some other element to build on.  You look for elements that will help you support it and bring it to life in the design.  One project I worked on was for an open space next to an apartment building.  The street names at the corner of the space were names of famous World War I battles in France.  The concept that I developed for the site was French countryside.  I created a concept board that expressed that theme and added various graphic elements that helped me select designs for signage, seating spaces, recreation areas, and so forth.  The concept board contained much more than what I actually used.  I was able to pick from the best components for my design and client presentation.  Concept boards can be used in client presentations.  However, I think that you should have already validated the concept with the client long before the final presentation.

Mood boards are useful for helping establish the ambiance and feeling you want to create.  These boards are not so much an expression of the design concept as the design feel and sensory experience.  What are the colors?  What are the textures?  How will they elicit an emotional response in the people who visit and use the space?  Mood boards tend to express adjectives.  They may express tranquil, exciting, relaxing, lush, or many other adjectives.  They support the concept by complementing and completing the setting.  Mood boards may also be part of the client presentation.  They help sell the concept so they can be an important tool is establishing, defining, and painting what the final result will be.

Journey boards are used to reflect movement through a space.  They show the sequence of events of walking a path or changing a view or moving from one space to another.  They can be a significant part of the client presentation because of their ability to depict movement and change.

Storyboards are the presentation tool.  This is not to say the other types of boards are not or cannot be used in a presentation.  They have just traditionally been used to capture little bits and pieces of each of the other types of boards for the final client presentation.  My decision to create one or use one depends a lot on the complexity and interrelationship of the various elements.  If there is a way to succinctly depict the concept, mood, and other keys elements, I might combine them into one storyboard.  However, if I need the power of the full presentation of mood and concept, I will use those two boards independent of a storyboard.

There are many subtleties to these different types of boards.  The electronic versus physical board creation process is subject to debate.  Presentation approaches such as combining concept and mood boards can have benefits.  The various types of boards are tools to help in the design process and to a large extent in the design validation process.  Learning to use boards in the way that is most beneficial for each project is the real skill.

Suggesting Movement in Your Client Presentation

In design classes during the sessions on design development, they usually mention three techniques:  provide destinations, add mystery, and create journeys.  I frequently treat these three techniques as one.  For example, adding a path winding through the landscape creates the journey.  Adding a hidden bend adds mystery as to what is around that bend.  The seating area at the end of the path is the destination.  Blending the techniques creates one simple design element with many possible responses from those who use the space.  The problem is in presenting these potential responses to the client.  A two dimensional plan view doesn’t really do justice to the potential effect.

My thoughts to get around this issue are twofold.  First, 3D design software should allow you create the layout and then generate the 3D walkthrough for the client.  The second approach is to create a journey board.  A 2D plan view is mounted on the middle of a poster board.  At various points on the path, lines are drawn leading to depictions of what the client would see standing in that spot.  The depiction could be drawings, enhanced photos, or representative pictures from other sources.  The objective would be to lead the client through the landscape journey showing the elements of mystery and other features.  The final depiction would represent the destination.  Like any storyboard, addition softscape and hardscape features can be added.

The idea behind 3D walkthroughs is to show them onscreen in real time.  However if circumstances warrant, prints of the 3D view could also be mounted on the journey board.  A combination of the two approaches if you will.

Given that these are design techniques it isn’t likely that clients are going to have these on their list of requirements.  Although I have had clients ask for destinations like seating areas and/or pathways.  In spite of this, our design should still be validated to the extent possible.  There may be elements that you fit into the design that were requested.  These can be validated as meeting the client requirements.  Your design concept, presented as a 3D walkthrough or a journey board, can be validated through client feedback and comments.

Using either of these techniques allows you to simulate the quality of motion through the landscape.  The client can get a sense of what it will be like to walk the path and reach the destination.  This can be pointed out in a 2D plan view but it just isn’t as effective for soliciting a client’s reaction and approval.

Form Composition – An Underutilized Tool

A pre-design tool taught in design classes but not used consistently by designers is form composition.  The purpose of form composition is to aid in finding the right shapes and lines that create the best and most aesthetic layout of the functional design.  The common form themes are:  circular, curvilinear, rectangular, diagonal, angular, and arc and tangent.

The process of creating form compositions starts with creating a grid overlaying the base plan.  This is done to orient the form composition to any existing or proposed structures.  Grid lines are created as extensions of existing major structural lines on the plan.  For example, building sides and corners, doorways, windows, offsets, etc.  This can be a tedious process.  The process must be repeated for each form composition theme being explored since the grids vary by theme.  The time and effort required to setup the grid for the form composition may be one of the reasons why designers don’t consistently create them.

Once you have the grids laid out, the next step is to use your functional diagrams as an overlay or a guide to begin laying out the space is a symmetric, harmonious, aesthetically appealing manner.  You typically create two or thee form compositions for each theme.  This is also time consuming.

If you go through all of this effort to create form compositions, what do you get out of them?  First, getting an aesthetically pleasing layout of shapes, lines, and patterns really is important.  Form composition in a tremendous aide in achieving that goal.  Many designers will tell you that it is second nature after awhile and that you can eventually stop doing them.  If that were the only reason for creating them, they might be right.

A second reason for form compositions is that they are an aide in ideation.  Fitting the shapes, lines, and spaces together during form composition can give you new ideas about how things can and should fit together.  Given that this is being done after the functional diagrams, you are pretty far into the analysis and design process.  However, you can still get new ideas about how you are going to implement your design concept.  Third, if you really do go through the process of creating several form compositions in each theme, you may see things you didn’t see before.  The same way the repetition is an aide to memory, the repetition of form composition is an aide to the visual process.  Forcing yourself to create multiple form compositions in various themes makes you think outside the box and that can help to see things you didn’t see before.

Lastly, form composition can help you implement your design to better meet your client’s needs.  There may be something that you think you have covered in your function designs that becomes clearer or that you see differently when you are creating a form composition.

As I mentioned earlier, form composition comes late in the design process; it comes after the function diagrams.  It can be a last minute reality check.  By looking at the actual implementation of the functional diagrams a number of times and in different ways, you are stretching your creative thinking.  You are forcing yourself to rethink the design each time.  That can be an important checkpoint to make sure you have considered all of the client requirements and the best way to implement them.

The Creative Process and Validation

Design, which includes landscape, fashion, product, graphic, and other disciplines, is thought of as a creative process.  When we say this, it conjures up an image of something mystical or magical that someone is able to do.  We admire the person who is creative.  That can be anything.  A slogan for a promotional campaign, an advertisement for a product, a solution to a problem, etc.  These endeavors also require knowledge or skill.  The way these are perceived by non-designers is very much like a “black box”.  The designer has skills and knowledge.  They apply it to a problem.  The designer reaches into the creative black box and comes up with a solution.  It really isn’t that simple or mystical.

I think there are some analogies that are appropriate.  One is vocabulary.  Someone with a very large vocabulary is more likely to be a better writer or speaker.  Having the large assortment of words to choose from would likely increase someone’s ability to communicate well.  As second is ideation.  The whole point of brainstorming is to come up with many ideas.  Some may be impractical or outright impossible.  However, somewhere in the mix is the right combination of thoughts or ideas to solve the problem.  A third is information.  Our schooling and education gives us certain basic knowledge.  However, the skill to find information when you need it is probably more important than the information itself.

The point is that creativity is most likely the result of what is applied to the problem rather than some magical ability.  Having skills and competencies that allow you to gather information and analyze that information are apt to make you more creative at finding solutions to problems or ideas to build on.  That is really the point to many of the analytical, graphical, and visual tools I have been recommending.  Gathering the data and expressing it in a meaningful, visual way gives you additional information for ideation, problem solving, and design concept formation.

Our perceptions of creativity stress originality, imagination, and uniqueness as components.  I believe that a large part of creativity is comprised of appropriateness.  Go back to my analogies.  Have a large vocabulary allows you to pick the right words.  Brainstorming a large pool of ideas allows you to pick and choose or combine to fine the best idea.  Appropriateness is a function of input.  The more you have to work with, the better your chances of finding answers, and the higher the quality of those answers.

My creative process is made up of many components.  Having knowledge of design principles, hardscape materials, plants, and other traditional topics is a huge factor.  Having skills in design, drawing, planning, and so forth is obviously a big component.  Core competencies such as analysis, facilitation, communication, observation, synthesis, etc. are also crucial.  Design is a creative process but the result of the design process has to be appropriate for the design requirements.  This is not a right-brain, left-brain issue.  Applying knowledge, skills, and our basic competencies to design problems generates solutions that are appropriate for the client.  Those are the solutions we can validate are the right ones to meet the client’s needs.