Demo by Gerry Gregg AIFD at CCSF

Large Centerpiece by Gerry Gregg AIFD

Had a demo today from Gerry Gregg AIFD, winner of the Cal-State Top 10 and owner of the Flower Market Chico, specializing in Manzanita and other natural materials from the Sierra Nevada Range. He came to talk with us about floral design for events (corporate, weddings) and the "California Natural" style.

Gerry made several amazing arrangements for using wood, mushrooms, moss and other materials as an structural base, explaining that he prefers "sheltering, free-flowing lines" and lots of texture with fewer flowers.

He has participated in many shows and competitions, and talked to us a lot about trends in design. He told us that the "Bling" style with all the jewels and sparkly bits is on its way out. "California Natural," a style he's actually been working in his whole career, has finally become a known and accepted design style, which includes such elements as woods, mosses, grasses, mushrooms, a clean architectural look, and elements that seem "grounded."

He talked to us about color trends: red, light blue, silver/pewter and antique gold are happening colors. Cascade wedding bouquets are in, with long sweeping tendrils. "Design for arts sake" he said, "is finally coming into play," meaning modern Eurostyle elements like exposed zip ties. He explained that he used exposed zip ties in a competition but was marked down for it, but times have changed. "Now," he said, "anything is possible if you use it with confidence and you have a reason for it."

He also stressed the importance of identifying what your clients "dislikes" are, the importance of knowing when to stop working on a design and leave it alone, and told us that it was his educated opinion that the Dole float built by Fiesta Floats would win first place in the Rose Parade this year. I found that he also does interesting abstract paintings, that can be seen at Art Circle.

Annual Auction at Intersection for the Arts

Busy bees at Intersection.

I created several centerpieces for Intersection for the Arts annual art auction and gala fundraiser. This year was particularly exciting because Intersection had moved their gallery from their Mission location on Valencia Street to new digs at the historic SF Chronicle building on Mission Street. The theme was bees and beehives. I created this centerpiece of Spring greens, flowers, ribbon and bees for the main table, and smaller groupings of spring flowers for the bar and cocktail tables. Congrats to Intersection!

Ornamento at Bouquets to Arts

Daisies at the de Young

Ornamento's installation for Bouquets to Art 2011 was created in the long triangular space right next to the main enterance. This space has long display windows on both sides, and can be seen from both the exterior courtyard and from the main lobby of the museum.

Inspired by the coming of Spring, we installed over 200 Gerbera Daisies, in a spectrum of colors. The colors began at one end of the long window with white, then yellow though orange to orange-red, then went from dark magenta through all the pinks to the lightest blush pink.

Museum visitors on opening day seemed very happy to see the "daisy field" a sign of Spring after days of overcast weather.

Ornamento at the Fairmont

Mock-up of Ornamento at the Fairmont by Kim Munson, 2010.

Ornamento has recently taken over the floral shop at the Fairmont Hotel, and become their preferred florist for events in the hotel. The shop had a "soft launch" a couple weeks ago, and we expect to hear about about a big grand opening in the next month or so. 

The graphic on the left is a mock-up of the interior I did for a proposal to the Fairmont. They eventually  decided on a modern French studio theme and I'm sure it will look great.

Start Trek Bouquet

For my final project in the CCSF wedding design class, I tried to imagine what the bouquet would look like at a Star Trek wedding. Imagine the bride wearing the regulation red velor mini-dress "uniform" from the original 1966 series. Part of the reason I wanted to do it was that it wasn't just a compelling vision of the future, it was a 1960's view of the future, around the same time similar design ideas were also appearing in the NY World's Fair and the original Tomorrow-land (Disneyland). In keeping with the theme, I used lots of bright solid colors and unusual materials.

A pair of large vase arrangements created today by Carolina Herrera, Yun Kyung Park & myself at CCSF.

Modern Fall Wedding - CCSF

This selection of arrangements was a group project for my Advanced Floral Design class. The theme was "Modern Fall Wedding at the SF W Hotel," inspired by some arrangements featured in the April 2010 issue of Flowers& magazine. Everyone in the group helped create these, but each person was primarily responsible for the following: Kim Munson (Bride's bouquet and overall design); Yun Kyung Park (cake display);  Federico Lupercio (Mother-of-the-Bride corsage & Groom's boutonniere);  Tamar Farajin (centerpiece collage & project storyboard);Carolina Herrera (altarpiece & project presentation).

Although we presented this at 11am, we thought of this as an early evening in downtown SF, with fall colors accented by warm candlelight.