Becoming a floral designer is not challenging, especially when you are passionate about flowers and designs. However, fanning your passion to flame is the most important when it comes to floral design. How then does one get into floral design?
To get into floral design, you will have to begin with learning the basics. You can do this by signing up for a floral design and flower class. Your passion for floral design and flower arrangement will become a reality with this first step.
You can sign up with an experienced florist with the opportunity for beginner’s hands-on workshops. Also, you can take accredited courses from local colleges around you. Keep reading this article to learn more on how to get into floral design.
Who Is A Floral Designer?
According to Shique Floral Design, A floral designer is a professional, either male or female, who uses flowers and plants (live, dried, or silk) to create arrangements. These beautiful arrangements can be for birthdays, weddings, banquets, funerals, and other occasions. A florist has creative eyes and a Sharpe imaginative ability to bring out the best from client’s descriptions.
They are very sympathetic and loving as they work with people with different emotions. Some attribute of a floral designer includes
Creativity And Artistic Ability
a florist must be very creative with a very high artistic ability to stand out in the world of floral designs. They must be able to look through the clients to invent mouth-opening designs and styles. Creativity is one important tool that a floral designer cannot do without.
Organizational Skills
To every Organization, there are some required skills and techniques needed to facilitate efficiency, problem-solving, and task completion. A floral designer has to be adaptable and flexible, with good communication skills, detail-oriented, excellent time manager, and so on.
Customer Service
A Floral designer must be people-oriented as they will be working with different kinds of individuals on their jobs. They must be empathic enough to be able to manage their emotions as well. This is because they tend to meet people on the job at their highest and lowers moods.
Vast Knowledge Of Floral Material And Equipment
With the daily advancement in technology, the world is becoming more dynamic in different ways, including the floral design world. So a floral designer must be up to date about floral equipment and material. A designer must be vast with a selection of flowers, vases, ribbons, and other accessories to make an adorable bouquet.
Above all, must be well informed about what flowers are suitable for each occasion.
How To Get Started With Floral Design
Do you dream of is sitting in a garden surrounded by different colorful flowers with various fragrances? Maybe the thought of owning a flower shop where you can gather and arrange a beautiful bouquet is more appealing to you than a regular job. You can make your obsession with flowers and floral design a reality.
Either you want to make floral design a full-time career, or as a side hustle, both are possible with the following steps.
- Sign up to learn the basics
- Read up to grow your flower knowledge
- Practice
- Volunteer to gain experience
- Identify an area of specialization
- Be true to self
- Step Out
Step 1: Sign Up To Learn The Basics
Signing up to learn the basics of floral design and flower arrangement is a significant step, especially for beginners. While some classes are academic and accredited by community colleges and local universities, others are practical courses offered by florists with hands-on workshops.
There are also free courses online, especially on Youtube, where you can learn from and practice. The basics include flower Identification and composition, flower conditioning, accessories, etc. One must know about the floral industry’s best practices and business management if one intends to own a shop.
Step 2: Read Up To Grow Your Flower Knowledge.
The more knowledge you have about a particular subject, the better your understanding of it. Reading books about floral designs and arrangements will help broaden your knowledge and keep you up to date about recent innovations. You can check bookshops and libraries around your area for flower arraigning and floral design books. You can also surf the internet for florists you admire, follow their social media pages, study their work, and read their books.
Step 3: Practice
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, you can only get better when you try out things, but you are not ready to begin until you start practicing. You can start practicing just for the passion and fun of it. Visit a florist or a flower shop around you to shop for the necessary ingredients to create your own designs. Don’t forget it’s just for the fun of it, so you don’t have to beat. Setting a goal and consistency is essential when practicing to make working with flowers become a natural part of you.
Step 4: Work Or Volunteer To Gain More Experience
Volunteering at a florist shop gives you a better edge to learn about floral design and flower arrangements. Also, in case of an opening, you can take up a job as an apprentice in a local florist shop near you. This will introduce you to the real world of floral design and give you an on-the-job experience.
Look out for florist shops where you can volunteer during holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas, or the wedding season. Many bouquets go out during this period which means you will be working a lot, from picking flowers to arranging different designs.
Step 5: Identify Area Of Specialization
Identifying your area of specialization and clarifying your goals keeps you focus and help you set a long-term goal. After getting certification in floral design courses and gathering work experience, it is an excellent time to draw the path for your floral design career.
There are different opportunities for a florist who wants to start a full-time career or wish to pursue it as a side hustle. Below are some jobs opportunities that can be considered. One can
- Be a Floral design instructor
- Be a flower farmer
- Be a Floral artist
- Own a flower shop
- Work as a freelance florist for other florists
- Be a Floral designer specializing in weddings and events
- Be an event producer
Note that this list is not exhaustive, as many other opportunities will be open to you as you go on in your career path. Once this is sorted, you can start on how the way to achieving your goal. Volunteering with different florists you admire will open you to varieties of designs as they all have different approaches to their work styles. You can also take more courses on floral design, especially those that address the work and business aspects.
Step 6: Be True To Self
This is the moment when you have to face reality and be true to yourself when becoming a floral designer. Every job has its peculiarity, so you have to be sure this path is for you.
Are you flexible enough to meet deadlines?
Are you an early morning person?
Can you cope with intense physical labor?
Step 7: Step Out
When all of the above steps are satisfied then, you can step out. Start by taking a snapshot of your flower arrangement while practicing to help measure improvement and build a portfolio. Also, you have to develop your own style of work with your creative ability to stand out and be unique. With consistency, your style and brand will also become recognized among many others.
On a final note, you can reach many people locally and internationally by sharing your work on your social media handles. Also, by creating a web presence for your floral design, you can do this yourself or get a professional to help with web creation and design.
Conclusion
No passion comes to life without the extra work and commitment invested in it. This is true with becoming a floral designer, working with flowers, or owning a flower garden. This article helps highlight some steps on how to easily get into floral design. Happy reading.