What it Takes to Win a Landscape Design Award: A Step By Step Process

Denice Shuty | November 18, 2010

Before I give you a list of my tips and suggestions I first want to emphasize that winning a design award and being able to refer to your company as an award winning landscape firm can help boost your business (if you maximize the opportunity).

I make this assertion based on my philosophy that landscaping is "theater"; it's visual and experiential. Clients have a demonstrated emotional response to the spaces you design, build, revive, and sustain for them. They want to see a transformation happen before their eyes and anticipate a happy ending.

Recognizing this emotional component should always be in the back of your mind when you consider how to brand and market your business. If you think of winning an award as just having another plaque to hang on the wall you are missing out. Give your clients, salespeople, suppliers, and other influencers some positive drama to talk about.

Winning a design award is a terrific launch pad for your PR or advertising efforts. Put out a press release, feature the award-winning project in your print advertising (you already have great photos, right?), use info about the award as fresh content on your website; it helps your search engine rankings. Generate new interest with former or existing clients with an email blast about your achievement - keep reinforcing the connection between you and them. Put the images and info in your sales brochures, on your business cards, even on your vehicle fleet.

Selecting your awards competition

If you're on board with that approach then the next step is selecting an appropriate competition(s) that would contribute to your PR/marketing efforts. Yes, there is a strategy to it. If one of your marketing goals is to form relationships with home builders in order to get them to refer you then you may want to enter a competition sponsored by a homebuilder's association or a building trade magazine, or a materials manufacturer. The contest may be directed mostly toward home builders, but will likely have a category for landscaping or outdoor living elements.

There are at least a dozen competitions run by allied organizations that have a landscape category. I really like this side-door tactic for several reasons.

• You will get to know a whole new group of people that can influence clients' decision-making and buying behaviors
• You can see the type of work each company does to decide who might be a good match with your company's services
• You will have something in common (the contest), to break the ice when you call them (plus you will probably get to the right person faster
• Your competitors - other landscape companies - don't know to enter these "sister-industry" awards so you may have the field all to yourself!

Here's how to evaluate whether you would do well in a particular competition.

• Look up previous winners in the category you want to enter, how does your project compare?
• Evaluate the quality and maturity of the elements, as well as the quality of the photography, does yours meet or beat those?
• How about project/site size; yours should look like it fits in.
• How about style; do most of the projects represent traditional design and you do minimalist gardens?
• Does the contest seem to favor a particular geographic or climactic genre? If it's a national competition for pools and spas, projects in California or Florida with more favorable weather and building conditions will tend to be more plentiful, elaborate, and innovative than those in the upper Midwest, perhaps making it harder to compete.

If you have your sights set on winning a prestigious ASLA Professional Award know you are competing against multi-million or billion dollar projects from all over the world, not just the US. You better have won at the chapter level first or you are wasting your time and money. Find one that is a good fit with your type of project and your competitive level.

With any design competition talk to the contest hosts/organizers and ask them how many entries they usually get in your target category, they are surprisingly open with this information. Obviously the fewer the number of entries the better your chances are of winning. There are usually fewer entries in newly created competitions. These competitions need to build their reputations and a following (and attract sponsors), and will likely give out more awards early on in their existence.

If you're a design firm and don't always have control over how your projects are built you may want to enter in an "on the boards" category where your vision and your graphic presentation are judged, rather than the actual built project.

Submitting your project for an award

Once you've selected a competition that's a good fit then you need to put effort into the quality of your submittal package. As Thomas Jefferson said, "I am a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." If you wait until the last minute to throw together a hodgepodge of photos and dash off a half-hearted project description it will show.

Plan ahead and enlist the help of an impartial person who's eye and opinion you trust because more likely than not you are not objective about your work. You need objectivity to evaluate if the project is indeed awards-caliber, if it's ready for photography, or what can be done to improve how it looks on camera, and what might be the most appealing or memorable aspects of the projects to the judges (who may have to look through 50 other projects over a weekend).

Also, you look at your craft as an insider, what impresses you about a project may be completely missed by someone not familiar with the particular operation or element, and vice versa, what you think is not a big deal can really capture the eye of someone viewing the project for the very first time. More how-to: I can't stress this enough, use a professional photographer who is strong in architectural or landscape photography. Judges are not as objective as you may think; they will react emotionally to eye candy or to the lack of it. Your flower beds can be full and your stonework flawless, but if the sky looks washed out and there is a hose in the photo their reaction will be less enthusiastic.

If you absolutely cannot afford one then get yourself a book on the art of garden photography and read it over the winter, or take a photography class.

With that said, have a shot list in mind for whom ever will take the photos. Don't leave it up to the photographer to guess which elements are worth capturing. Part of what you have to communicate to the judges (think about everything from the judge's viewpoint), are the challenges or constraints of the project. If the photographer doesn't know those aspects, how will he or she know what elements or viewpoints to represent? (Side note: a "tight budget" is not a convincing challenge to put forth).

Also, try to match "after" shots to "before" shots that you have, judges really like that. Have enough variety of shots; photograph from atop a ladder or from inside the building (if there is one), to get additional angles. Some competitions require up to a dozen photos and they should all be different from each other. For a large property it is not unusual to start with 70 or more images to look through before I select the ones that will work best and story-match with the text.

One more step: for your final photo picks have the photographer or a Photoshop expert do any color/brightness/saturation corrections that are needed.

Ninety percent of sites need some sort of enhancements, primping, or staging for the photoshoot. Get the pickiest person you know to walk the site with you well ahead of the photoshoot to point out flaws or distractions for you to address. You may need to start well in advance like planting spring bulbs now for an April photoshoot, or allowing enough time for newly laid sod to look established - it's no good if seams show. There is always a list of last minute touchups to be done and it's good to have someone on hand at the photo shoot to help move things around.

If plans, schematics, or plant lists are part of the submittal package then make sure yours are correct (as-builts), and that the graphics are the best they can be. Color-render any plans or perspectives. Organize and scrutinize your plant list for the proper Latin names and punctuation.

Along with great images, take time to compose an interesting narrative for your submission package (again, think about the judges who have to read 50 of these essays at a time). Not too dry/factual and not too flowery. I advise you handle it like a reporter doing a feature story; conduct an interview, get all the facts, plus commentary and quotes. Have a "hook" or an anecdote that makes your project memorable to the judges. Have someone else review and edit your copy to tighten it up and check for errors.

If you would like more tips on winning awards along with "Call For Entries" updates, sign up for Denice's design/build marketing newsletter at WritelyYours.com

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