Designing to Win

As a Designer, you work through Designing to Win with your own design. You respond to the brief, submit your work for both Design Forums, and apply what you learn from the first round to your second response.

As an Observer, you learn from the full group. You see a wide range of responses to the brief, hear each one analysed, and see them evolve with an impartiality that can come from observing with detachment. You also receive the course materials, join both Design Forums and take part in the question and answer sessions.

You don't need previous competition experience. The mentorship and support offered throughout Designing to Win make it an ideal entry point if you are considering competing for the first time.

Designing to Win can also be useful if you already compete or are returning to competition after a break.

You don't need to be an experienced competitor, but joining as a Designer assumes that you can make a floral design independently from a brief.

If you would rather concentrate on the analysis without making and submitting your own work, you can join as an Observer. You will still see all of the submitted designs and share in the discussions and learning from both Design Forums.

Designing to Win uses a competition-style schedule and its marking criteria as tools for analysing the designs, but the submissions are not point-scored or ranked against one another.

The purpose is to understand how each design responds to the schedule, where it could gain or lose marks in a competition, and what could be changed to make the response more successful.

You don't need to attend the Design Forums live. Both forums are recorded, and you receive links to watch them afterwards.

Joining live gives you the opportunity to ask questions during the discussion, but you can also work through the recordings at a time that suits you.

For Observers, your time commitment is largely up to you. You can read the eBooks, watch their companion videos and attend or watch the two Design Forums at your own pace.

Past Designers have reported allowing 5 to 10 hours for each of the two exercises: time to interpret the schedule, and to develop, make and photograph their designs. How long the practical work takes will depend on the design you choose to make.

You make a design in response to the Designing to Win schedule and submit photographs of the completed work for Design Forum #1.

After the first forum, you have the opportunity to apply what you have learned and make a second submission based on the same schedule. Design Forum #2 compares the two responses and examines what changed and why, and what those changes produced.

Your photographs need to represent the design clearly enough for it to be analysed properly.

Use a plain or neutral background where possible and include a clear frontal view of the complete design. Additional views can help show its depth, construction and other details that are difficult to read from the front.

Pay attention to camera height and angle so the photograph represents the design and its intended setting accurately. Basic corrections such as cropping, straightening, lighting and colour correction are acceptable, but the design itself should not be digitally altered.

The aim of the second submission is to respond to what you learned from the first Design Forum. You might remake your first design with a few specific changes, revise it substantially, change a container or construction choice that caused a problem, or develop a new response to the same schedule.

Where practical, keeping some visual connection between the two submissions can make the learning easier to see when they are compared. That connection might come from the container, mechanics, materials, colour scheme or another part of the original idea. It is useful, but it is not an absolute requirement.

Just let Mark know and try to complete it when you can. Mark will still give you the feedback for your development but the design(s) may not make it into the presentations and Competition Learnings eBook.

Yes. Shared analysis is at the heart of Designing to Win. The submitted designs are examined during the Design Forums, which are attended by both Designers and Observers.

That is part of the value of the programme: everyone can see how different designers respond to the same schedule, what decisions they make, what Mark identifies in the analysis, and how those observations are applied in the second submissions.

Yes. You can contact Mark with questions about the schedule, your first submission, the feedback you received or the development of your second submission. You're also welcome to share your questions after the sessions, particularly if something occurs to you while reading the notes or watching a recording.

Pricing is deliberately flat so the course is as affordable as possible for everyone, which means there are no discounts or group rates available.

If places remain, yes. As an Observer, you can join at any time and catch up with the reading and recordings at your own pace. If joining as a Designer, you can join after the first forum, but this could place you under considerable pressure to submit your first design, reflect on the feedback and revisit it in time for the second forum.

Yes, the core benefit of Designing to Win is the ability for both Designers and Observers to share in the learnings, to hear the feedback across the full range of entries, and to see how that learning is applied in the second responses.

Observers receive the same course materials as the Designers and the same opportunities to participate in the Q&A sessions in the forums.

Mark works through the submitted designs against the schedule, considering interpretation, marking criteria, design principles, overall effect and workmanship. He identifies where decisions are working, where marks might be gained or lost in competition, and what could be reconsidered or developed.

Design Forum #1 focuses on the first submissions and provides feedback for Designers to take into their second response. Design Forum #2 compares the two submissions, looking at what changed, why it changed and what those changes produced. Designers and Observers can participate in the discussion and Q&A throughout.

Mark objectively analyses the designs as he would if judging them in competition, but deliberately avoids scoring or ranking them. This is because the objective of Designing to Win is not to compare Designers or their work against each other, but to encourage each Designer's personal growth through the two submissions and feedback sessions.

Mark is a firm believer in resourceful designing and encourages you to use whatever you can source easily and affordably. He's often to be found, secateurs in hand, foraging from verges, paddocks and his own garden. Good designing is about choices. Expensive or abundant materials are not necessary.

Use construction methods and mechanics that you are comfortable with to make your designs work for you. You might choose techniques you're already confident with, or experiment with something new. You might also want to use prefabricated structures such as baskets or frames salvaged from something you made before. Mark's eBooks Building Confidence - Simplifying a Floral Structure and Interwoven Possibilities - Designing with Bamboo Mats offer a range of ideas around this.

The purpose of the second submission is to respond to what you learned from the first Design Forum, so you can keep or change the container, mechanics and materials as needed.

Where practical, retaining some visual connection between the two submissions can make the effects of your changes easier to see and discuss. That connection might come from the container, mechanics, materials, colour scheme or another recognisable part of the original idea, but this is a guideline rather than a requirement.

You can, but please take care to avoid changes to the photograph that alter the design itself. Careful choice of a neutral background and good lighting will help you avoid altering the colour balance of the materials in the design.

Use basic photographic editing to clean up stray background artefacts or compensate for poor lighting conditions, but avoid digitally altering the design itself.

Absolutely, and it is encouraged. The process of articulating your decisions to someone else often helps clarify your own design process.

Yes. Written notes are provided shortly after each forum, and are also captured in the final eBook, Competition Learnings.

The size limits here are defined in the schedule.