President's Perspective

By GENEVIEVE REINER MILLS | 2023 OGIA President

HAPPY SUMMER, EVERYONE! Hopefully, we’ve all survived and thrived over the last six months and are getting a little bit of a breather in the next few weeks.

In this issue of The Buckeye, we’re talking about design— trends, ideas, inspiration. But what is design? Celebrated designer Charles Eames said, “One could describe design as a plan for arranging elements to accomplish a particular purpose.” In short, it is the why behind making or creating something. The “why” of design—good design—can be many things: to help people feel comfortable in a space, to encourage customers to linger and consider one more purchase, or to inspire us, invoke trust, motivate us, relax us, or make life *that* much easier.

“Capital D” design can sometimes come across as fancy or unattainable—think a $100,000 handbag or the gardens at Versailles. But everyday design is everywhere…and it’s with everyday design that we make the biggest impact in the lives of others. It’s the small patio escape you create for morning coffee sipping, the tulip bulbs displays that pop up and delight us every spring, or a mixed annual basket grown as a perfect gift. Design doesn’t have to be a grand statement, but it does have to exist—even if the why is simply because it makes the world more beautiful.

I would argue that if you’re in our profession, you’re a designer. Maybe you geek out over the other-worldly shapes of orchids or fuchsia, are captivated by a well-crafted, flowing perennial garden, or stay up to date on the most eye-catching way to showcase your retail displays. We all know about landscape design, but merchandising, traffic flow, the myriad ways we visually showcase our companies (websites, logos, letterheads)—all of these aspects of our businesses require design. More than ever, design is part of business, and to quote pioneering IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson, Jr., “good design is good business.”

Speaking of landscape design, my father, John Reiner, is a landscape architect who likes to say that landscape designers and architects are at the top of the design game because they need to design in three dimensions, plus time. As our palette is made up of growing, ever changing materials, he’s 100% right. Our products grow, spread, flower, fruit, fade, creep, and respond to the environments in which we place them, making our designs pretty complex…not to take anything away Mr. Eames’ iconic chair! We think about the relationship between changing textures, shapes, patterns. We are mixed media artists, crafting perfect soils for growing our seedlings or combining wood and stone, leaf and bloom, to build four dimensional spaces that bring delight and joy.

Humans have been designing with plants since the ancient Egyptians were building gardens in their palaces and temples. As members of the green profession, we’re part of a long line of individuals who have used plant design

to improve our environments, and we’re living in a time when humans are more interested in plant design than ever before. Designing with plants is trendy (just look at the number of books, Instagrammers, and TikTokers talking about landscaping and houseplants), and people are more aware than ever of our need to be connected to nature (hello, biophilic design!). It’s true that types of “design worthy” plants may come and go, but plants as a design element are eternal.

If you’re interested in design in all it’s amazing forms, I’d recommend checking out the podcast 99% Invisible. (From the idea that good design is 99% invisible, that is, not actively noticed.) There are dozens of interesting episodes about plants, landscape, and nature in general, plus fascinating stories about how humans have shaped our tools and environments to accomplish various goals. In the meantime, keep designing amazing companies, spaces, experiences, gardens, and landscapes!

Happy summer and stay cool out there!