Humans have purposely gathered and placed flowers and foliages into containers according to a plan throughout history. Whether purposely grown and gathered from a cutting garden or just plucked from along a roadside, the art of arranging flowers into structured designs has been and continues to be an exciting way to bring nature inside to be admired and experienced. A good floral arrangement should be full of emotion, balance, movement and interesting colors and textures that reflect a theme or idea and of one’s own personality. A good floral design doesn’t just happen. The floral designer must know how to create a relationship between all the components to evoke a sense of security, naturalness, balance and simplicity.
While all floral design styles are quite lovely, my personal favorite design style is from the Italian Renaissance period. During this period, floral designs featured small flowers of bright colors with contrasting hues based on triadic harmonies, creating vibrant designs. Primary and secondary triads were the most popular, utilizing red, blue, and yellow harmonies as well as orange, purple, and green ones. Floral design shapes of this period were often triangles, arcs, and ellipses utilizing roses, lilies, daisies, violets, laurel dianthus, olive branches, and ivy branches to create the shape. Many of the designs were often light and airy despite being placed in large, heavy containers primarily made of pottery, metal, or glass. This time period also gave rise the classic Christmas wreath which was created from fruit, flowers, and cones and popularized by painter Luca della Robbia.
The primary influences of American design styles have origins in Asian, European, and Early American design periods dating before the early twentieth century. American floral designs typically combine line and mass styles, resulting in the many variations that we see today.
As a designer, it is important to understand the characteristics of each style so that you can adapt designs to create uniquely personalized arrangements. Stick with us over the next few weeks as we dive into the world of floral design styles and just maybe you will be inspired to create something wonderful!
Until next time, continue spreading joy!
Jill
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