Accent Decor Inspires Floristry Students



Best Overall Composition awarded to Armando de Loera Mejia

The fall semester at City College of San Francisco ended with an exciting and inspirational floral design competition in the special events class.  We were thrilled and excited to collaborate with Accent Décor https://www.accentdecor.com  on this fun and challenging project.  Accent Décor provides such diversity and beauty to our industry with their vast selection of vases, containers and all the must haves for styling and decorating in the design world.  I highly encourage you to visit their website and blog.  It's a great resource to see what's trending in the industry.

The students were assigned to create a floral arrangement in the Accent Décor  Lush Vase 6" x 7" shown below. The style and materials used for the arrangements were Designers Choice.  The designs had to include some type of floral material and must be deliverable.  The students were able to completed the designs at home and bring to the classroom for judging.  Steven Brown AIFD (Department Chair of Environmental Horticulture/Floristry) judged the competition.  There were seven categories that the students were judged on:  Best Overall Composition, Best Use of Color, Best Artistic Inventiveness and Originality ("Creativity"), Best Use of Container, Best Sellable Appeal, Best in Trending, and Best Production Design.  The categories were chosen to go along with some of the topics that were taught through out the semester.  The competition was held on November 19th, 2016 at City College of San Francisco and 20 students participated.

 

 I explained ways to begin this creative process, showed sources for inspiration and emphasized the importance of mechanics.  I demonstrated a sample for a point of reference and encourage the students to explore their own style. The students had a chance to experiment with the vase and develop their ideas weeks before the competition.  We critiqued and collaborated as a class on many options for each student before the competition.  Below is the demo and the construction process that was presented to the class.   I explained how the demo design could fall into any of the competition categories.

 

Styrofoam, banking pins and magnolia leaves used for construction of  demo design.

Finished demo design by Jenny Tabarracci AIFD using floral foam as the water source for first layer of fresh materials.  First layer of materials were designed in a curved fashion around the perimeter of  styrofoam with stems inserted into foam initially.   Mini cymbidium orchids and pepper berries were then glued to construction.  Angle hair was woven in the design for light contrasting accents.

 

 Sohyun Kwak practicing her design.

 

 Diane Graham practicing her design.

Minna Lim practicing her design.

Class at San Francisco Flower Market selecting their design product.  Many thanks to Roy from Brannan Street Wholesale for all his expertise and support!!



Julia loving the San Francisco Flower Market!



Steven Brown Department Chair of  Environmental Horticulture/Floristry judged the competition.  Steven scored each students arrangement and then gave results to instructor/coordinator Jenny Tabarracci AIFD.  Steven announced the results to patiently waiting students.  Students received monetary awards and ribbons.  Congratulations to all the students!!  Below are the results of all competition categories.

Junghwa Han received the award for Best Use of Container

So Yeon Kim received award for Best Artistic Inventiveness and Originality ("Creativity")

 

Victor Castillo received award for Best Sellable Appeal

 

 

Joana Ferran received award for Best in Trending

Katsiaryna Baradauka received award Best Production Design

 

Luciana Soares Da Silva Edwards received award for Best Use of Color

Armando de Loera Mejia received award Best Overall Composition

 

   Design by Youbin Kim

 

Design by Minna Lim

 

Design by Julia Conner

 

Design by Grace De Guzman

 

Design by Sohyun Kwak

  

Design by Diane Graham

Design by Irasema Carranza

 

Design by Ron Castagnetti

 

Design by Qian Chen

Design by Dahee Han

Design by Ying Gu Pressman

 

Design by Celia Hamilton

 

 

Congratulations to everyone on an outstanding job!  So proud of you all.  I know this was the first competition experience for many of you and remember it's just a learning experience that you can grow from.  I hope it inspired you to design more and maybe even enter a competition or show.  It was a pleasure being your instructor and watching you grow through the process.  Many thanks to Accent Décor for providing their wonderful containers, resource materials and beautiful bags.  Thanks to Steven Brown AIFD for his leadership, expertise and judging the competition.  Also thank you Katie Gelardi for providing many of the beautiful photos.  Happy Holidays to all and hope to see you in the 2017 spring semester. 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hitomi Gilliam Inspires at City College of San Francisco



Design by Hitomi Gilliam AIFD

The students in the Environmental Horticulture and Floristry Department at City College of San Francisco www.ccsf.edu were intrigued, fascinated and inspired by internationally renowned master designer Hitomi Gilliam design358.com/hitomi  at their annual fall semester Artist in Residence Program.  Hitomi focused on new and exciting mechanics in the industry, trends, and how to be a profit minded floral artist.  She discussed the importance of education, investing in yourself and charging appropriately for creative talent and time.  Her designs and presentation enabled the students to gain insight and encouragement to explore possibilities within the industry and to reach their full potential.

 

The photo above is a  horizontal construction displaying the importance of the handcrafted look and her artistry with interesting materials and line.  The fresh materials were gathered from the horticulture greenhouses and gardens of City College with beautiful specimens of Adiantum tenerum, Jasmine polyanthum, Agapanthus africanus and Senecio cineraria.  Hitomi purposely accents her materials to show the pleasing imperfections which is a sought after trend. One way she does this is wrapping water tubes and the wooded supports with natural twine such as jute in an uneven manner.  She also discusses the importance of transparency in her designs.  This is an important topic taught and learned in the European Masters Certification Program (EMC) which Hitomi and Tomas De Bruyne  www.tomasdebruyne.com have partnered and jointly run together. emcprogram.com













Hitomi Gilliam AIFD, Jenny Tabarracci AIFD, Tomas De Bruyne, Holly Money-Collins AIFD
at San Francisco Flower Market

 

Wonderful opportunity and privilege for the students to work with floral artists such as Hitomi.  (above) Students of the American Institute of Floral Designers (SAIFD) Hee Joo and So Yeon Kim assisted and demonstrated in Hitomi's presentation.  Also Sue Tabbal-Yamaguchi AIFD assisted with Hitomi's presentation.

Hitomi sketched in large scale the beginnings of her design process for the group on the chalk board.  This provided a clear vision for all.  Sketching your designs before executing them is a fantastic way to initiate the creative process.

Hitomi executed the constructions of her sketched designs and proceeded to place fresh materials within her compositions.

Hitomi demonstrated ways to reinvent glass vases with flat wire and spray paint.

Steven Brown AIFD Department Chair gave the welcoming greetings to the group and was the point person for procurement and coordinating facility.  Special guest Wil Gonzalez AIFD the representative for AIFD North West Region spoke about upcoming scholarships and the American Institute of Floral Designers National Symposium in Orange County.  

 

http://aifd.org/

 

Hitomi shared her designs and concepts with the European Master Certification Group that was visiting City College.

 

Hitomi's construction and mechanics for a chandelier design.

This was a fantastic educational learning collaboration with City College of San Francisco, American Institute of Floral Designers and European Master Certification Program.   Many thanks to everyone and especially to Hitomi for sharing her expertise and floral artistry.

(picture above:  So Yeon Kim, Hitomi AIFD, Hee Joo, Young Joo Pak, Jenny Tabarracci AIFD)