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Focus on Design
Sympathy Designs
by Alex Torres AIFD TMF

Welcome to the next edition of my monthly column focused on the artistic aspect of our wonderful industry.

I would like to begin the column by sending kudos to all the talented floral designers that participated at the Texas State Florists Association's Texas Cup Preliminary competition in Austin, Texas. I was in awe of the wonderful creative energy that surrounded us during the competition. I was a little saddened by the fact that I wasn't competing this year, but it was exhilarating to see so many new floral designers giving it the “old college try”. I was there strictly for moral support and just to enjoy the breathtaking floral designs that these talented contestants were creating. The mix of new faces and competition veterans made for a great floral design competition.  Hats off to everyone who competed. You are all winners in my book! To those of you that couldn't make it , I strongly recommend that you prepare yourselves for next  year's preliminary competition. To those that advanced to finals CONGRATULATIONS!!!! I hope you enjoy the rest of your Texas Cup journey.

At the competition, I ran into my good friend and fellow Allied Florists of Houston member Renee Carpenter, TMFA. We spoke about the perils of competition and about how good a show we were enjoying. Renee was there writing an article and snapping candid shots of the competitors. The conversation changed to how much of a difference certain techniques in floral design can impact a finished piece to make it an exceptional design.

You all know what I'm talking about. Picture this... a customer calls in for a carnation funeral spray. Usually a design like this is called "Designer's Choice". Nine times out of ten what gets sent out is a traditional commodore, carnation, and babies breath arrangement in an oval shape. That kind of funeral spray can get lost amidst the many other similar floral arrangements at that same service. While this is often what customers are looking for, they may be open to other options if more advanced and modern design styles are offered. They may be interested in something that will really stand out.For the most part you will find that the consumer will even agree to an added cost if the salesperson discusses the benefit of making their gift truly unique.

The key to this is to educate consumers, sales staff, and floral designers. Be a bit more creative when sending out funeral pieces that will have great impact. With a little effort and willingness, small changes in sympathy work can make your shop's work stand out from the rest. These simple changes will add extra punch to the piece and also increase the perceived value of the funeral arrangement:

GOOD TIPS —

Try varying shades of a color to add depth and visual interest to a design, as well as to break up the monotony of all one color.

Try extending the distance between your top and bottom insertions to elongate the spray's shape and soften the severity of the circle making it more of a graceful elongated oval.

Try (if budget allows) to use a different filler such as statice, solidago, lepto, calcinia, heather, etc.

BETTER TIPS—

Put a twist on the traditional funeral spray by manipulating the shape of the design into a graceful crescent. Start by trimming your commodore to give is a cleaner line. Beginning on your left hand side, insert three stems of trimmed commodore. Follow your designs “skeleton” by inserting three more trimmed commodore on your lower right hand side, making sure that the middle piece of commodore is at least 1 1/2 times as long as the two pieces flanking it. Establish your design's line by making your insertions following the path of your trimmed commodore. Remember to make your insertions at various lengths to give the design depth. Concentrate a few floral insertions to establish a focal point in the center of your floral cage.

Cover any exposed foam with regular greenery (usually leather leaf), but try using different foliage to accent the design's graceful cascade. Good choices include foliage with great visual impact such as bear grass, lily grass, eucalyptus, equisetum, long plumosa, sprengeri, English ivy, etc.

Sometimes a customer will request ribbon work on a funeral design. We aim to please...so do it, but tailor the ribbon to the piece by decreasing the number of loops and increasing the number of streamers. Add interest to the streamers by tying a few “love knots”. Be sure to mention the love knots to the customer as they will surely appreciate the “sentimentality” expressed by their floral gift and it will make for a great selling point.

Add a strong focal point with choice blooms such as stargazers, casablancas, or a few gerbera daisies. When suggesting the add-ons to the customer be sure and use colorful words such as EXQUISITE, GORGEOUS, FRAGRANT, UNIQUE, etc. lso, mention how their gift will surely stand out.  After all, they are trying to make a statement about the person to whom it will be delivered.

BEST TIPS—

Consider selling a floral design that exemplifies your shop's creative ability.  Suggest to the customer rather than sending a huge mass of carnations, maybe they would like a piece full of originality.  Mention the merits of such a design and explain all its virtues and how it will definitely send the right message to the deceased's loved ones.  Be sure and sell a “LOOK” as opposed to an actual type or number of flowers.

Try including elements of added interest such as curly willow, birch branches, bamboo, fan palms, shelf mushrooms, lichen covered branches, mosses, pods and other dried accessories. The key to creating artistic design lies in the strong groupings of material to make more of a visual impact.

Further customize a floral design by adding something that the customer might bring in or that can be made to represent something the deceased held in high regard. For example, a cowboy hat for a cowboy, a piece of bamboo with a foam fish hanging from some fishing line for a fisherman, a duck decoy for a hunter, in fact the sky's the limit.

Creative pieces generally take less time because they require less insertions, but they generate more attention because of their unusual floral placement. Consider larger flowers for these pieces such as gladiolas, belladonna delphinium, birds of paradise, eremurus, and liatrice to create a showy, dramatic thrust. Complement these strong placements with equally showy foliage such as ti leaves, calathea leaves, red ti leaves, or magnolia leaves. Try looping the leaves and placing them in staggered horizontal stair step fashion.  You can then designate a strong focal point with larger choice blooms such as sunflowers or stargazers.

Instead of greening with regular foliage, cover exposed mechanics with sheet moss or Spanish moss, and accent with rhythmic use of curly willow or similar branches on your upper left hand side. Continue the line by inserting a long piece of curly willow on your lower right hand side and swirling it in a graceful way along the length of the easel's right leg curling the end of the curly willow up towards the easel's left leg. This can be achieved by securing the swirl with pieces of taped or barked wire. A beautiful finishing touch would be a cluster of flowers to complement the flowers used in the main piece wired to the end of the swirled curly willow and attached to the easel with taped wire.

We have reached the end of yet another column.  It is my sincerest wish that you are enjoying reading these article as much as I enjoy writing them.

Any questions or comments regarding this article and its content should be directed to alextorrestmf@aol.com.

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