How to Choose a Perfect Freelance Landscape Architect for Your Project
Published: November 10, 2021
The Digital era provides many benefits with a wide variety of online services that can help us save time and efficiently accomplish our goals. Especially since the Covid pandemic hit us in 2019 a lot of people transferred into the digital workspace. Competition is rising and the selection of remote landscape architects is increasing rapidly. This may bring confusion and hesitance among clients because it is hard to decide who will be a perfect candidate for your project and why. In the following article, I want to help all of you who are searching for freelance landscape architects by pointing out what are the most important elements that determine a great designer.
Portfolio
For landscape designers and architects, a portfolio is something that represents their skills and experience. Looking through their past projects you will get an idea of how the freelancer work and what you can expect to receive as a final design. Ask to see some similar projects to yours to understand the designer’s abilities and creativity. For example, if you live in a dry climate and want to make sure that the designer has experience with plant selection and design possibilities for your area, kindly ask to see projects from their portfolio that are relevant to your property. Keep in mind that because of the different terrain characteristics, architecture composition, microclimate, and many other variabilities, two identical projects don’t exist. Portfolios may be found on designers’ personal websites (check out mine here), freelance website accounts (Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour), Social media accounts (Pinterest is one of my favorites), or online portfolio sites such as Behance and Dribbble.
Reviews
Many online platforms for freelance services have a section where previous clients can leave a review and their** honest opinion about the designers and their work**. I have an account on Upwork (link o my profile), a marketplace that connects clients with freelancers of different professions. Because of my great reviews and experiences with past clients, I often receive messages that I was chosen for a job because of my excellent reviews. From the very beginning of my freelance career, I was aware of how powerful reviews can impact clients’ opinions and shape the way that they perceive you and your services. Carefully read all the reviews and get to know the designer through the experience of other people. Don’t be discouraged if the freelancer doesn’t have any reviews or if you can’t find them online, ask for a short call to meet the person and ask directly any questions that you might have.
TIP: agree on the exact price before starting the project to avoid wasting your money and time. The market is huge and you will be able to find someone who will fit your budget.
Communication
Using only messages as a source of communication can bring misunderstandings and confusion. I always recommend making a short video call where we can meet and discuss a project in more detail. Making sure that everything is set up properly at the beginning of the design process brings far better final results. As a client, you need to have clear requests and provide required information to the designer while on the other hand freelancer should specify the prices, deliverables, due dates, and all other demanded elements prior to starting a project. How someone communicates and expresses their ideas and opinions will tell you a lot about the person and how seriously they take their job. One time, I worked with a client who was indecisive and gave me misleading information through messages. Instead of asking for a meeting to precisely determine all the requirements, I worked on the project solely based on the info provided in the written form. As you can guess the client wasn’t satisfied with my design because he had something different in his mind. I took all the responsibilities and arranged a call with the client to discuss the project in more detail and precisely determine his requests. After collecting all the necessary info I revised the project and the client was over the moon with the final results, and I was very happy with how it all turned out.
All in all, think logically and choose the person who shows you expertise and willingness to provide the best final product. The project phase shouldn’t be stressful at all because everything could be revised in a matter of a couple of hours, so explore the ideas with your designer and don’t be afraid to hire online.