Designing for a contemporary venue

I have planned and created a contemporary design to feature in the window of a high-end restaurant in my local town of Louth. To make this commercially viable I needed to keep costs low, whilst still creating an impact piece for the venue. After consulting with the client I was clear on their sense of style and had a vision of how the design should look. I began researching using a number of floristry books and magazines for inspiration. I also took into account some of the methods and materials that I had previously used in other arrangements.

  

My chosen venue: 14 Upgate, Louth 

The front window of the restaurant is in a prime location and in perfect view of passers by. This is where my design shall be placed. 

Inspiration:

Fusion Flowers April 2016

This really stands out to me, the use of all yellow flowers is so striking. I felt that my design needed to have a similar impact therefore, I decided to use all yellow flowers for my arrangement.

Fusion Flowers 

This image was also taken from Fusion Flowers magazine, again using all yellow flowers but incorporating twigs into the design. The base of this also appealed to me and I decided to incorporate it into my design. To lower the costs I used recycled cardboard as opposed to the felt used in the above design. I then added strips of yellow wool to some of the cardboard squares to give added impact.

Sketch of my planned design in-situ 

To envisage what my design would look like I drew a sketch of it placed in the venue. As the window was a large area I decided to add some height to the design using long twigs.  

Cardboard squares complete with wool embellishments

Frame complete with twigs before the flowers were added 

 

To increase the longevity of these flowers I fixed test tubes to the twigs on the frame using bullion wire, this gave them a source of water.

Image of final design

Here is an image of my final design, I was really pleased with the result and felt that it fit the brief that I had been given by my client: to create a simple but statement design. Using yellow really stood out against the dark wooden twigs.  

Here is an image of my design in the window of the restaurant. I am pleased with the final result however I feel that the size could have been slightly longer in length. I love the colour scheme and feel that the frame could be adapted to all occasions by using seasonal flowers to compliment. 

Me with owner of 14 Upgate, Andrew Leonard