![\"House](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/House-Calls-1.jpg\" "\\"C\u00c1MARA")
<\/a>Raymond Shaw came to his profession\u2014he\u2019s been a landscape designer for the last decade\u2014the usual way: by complete accident. It\u2019s only in retrospect that everything seems inevitable, that graphic artist to junior high school teacher to landscape designer seems a logical progression.<\/p>\n
In a video on Shaw\u2019s website (produced by his son, Dana) he credits his father with his interest in design, although there\u2019s more to the story than that. His father was a consummate craftsman (or as Shaw puts it, \u201cHe was anal about everything\u201d). Stained glass, metal fabrication, carpentry\u2014his father was good with his hands, a guy who was always in his workshop tinkering.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe built furniture. He did a lot of casting. He had a centrifuge and kiln.\u201d Shaw\u2019s strongest memories of his father are of him in his workshop, and Shaw learning the hard way, by holding something\u2014and trying not to get in the way. \u201cHe used to say, \u2018The reason I had kids was to have an extra clamp.\u2019 Once my mother was holding something very important for him, and as he took a backswing, he popped her in the forehead with his mallet. Of course he was more concerned about her losing her grip than he was about what he had done to her.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Shaw might have learned something about craft, attention to detail and dodging mallets from his father, the one thing he didn\u2019t learn was design. Shaw said, \u201cHe was a lousy designer. He was an excellent fabricator, but not a good designer.\u201d In a sense, Shaw learned about design by critiquing his father\u2019s work. \u201cHe relied on pattern books for his designs, he copied junky stuff.\u201d During the day, his father was in charge of a dental lab. \u201cHe fabricated things that went into peoples\u2019 mouths, like bridges and crowns.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Shaw went to college at San Diego State University, he minored in crafts, with a glass arts focus\u2014stained glass, enamel and blown glass. He considered majoring in sculpture, but his practical side won out. \u201cI gravitated to advertising. I thought of myself as an illustrator, but there was so much competition,\u201d he said. Art director seemed like a more reasonable goal. He eventually found himself designing signage for corporate clients, such as Disneyland. In a sense, he was doing illustrations\u2014presentation drawings from a downward perspective. After 15 years, however, he was burned out. There\u2019s a reason why they call advertising guys \u201cmad men.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaw returned to San Diego State, this time for a teaching credential, where he met his future wife, Barbara. Together, they graduated, got jobs, and began new careers\u2014Shaw as an art teacher in a performing arts school, Barbara as a high school English teacher. After eight years, education had become almost as crazy as advertising. The back-to-basics movement closed the performing arts schools\u2014as well as the shop, drama, dance and art classes. At the same time (it was the late 90s) the Shaws bought a bungalow in South Park. While others might have just talked about redoing the garden and house, Shaw put his thoughts down on paper, in color.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew how to go about things. Working with scale. Down views and elevations. I could really see things that way. I just started drawing and drawing,\u201d he said. Like gardening and banging on stuff with a mallet, it was a sort of therapy for Shaw. \u201cI was so upset with education. In the end, I was saying, \u2018I can\u2019t go forward with this stress.\u2019\u201d He sat down with Barbara. You can imagine her looking at her stressed-out husband, the drawings everywhere and a light going on. \u201cWhy not landscape design,\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
As before, Shaw returned to school, this time to Cuyamaca College. \u201cI interviewed the head of the department, showed him my portfolio. I asked, \u2018Do you think this is something I could get into?\u2019 He said, \u2018Hell, yes.\u2019\u201d Not only did he encourage Shaw to enroll, \u201cbut he brought me in for a project\u2014for a sign plan for the garden where they sell plants.\u201d Some of the classes were too basic for his skill set\u2014such as a beginning design class\u2014\u201cThey\u2019re talking about the elements of design, focal points, color.\u201d Others, such as a computer-assisted design class, didn\u2019t fit in with his personal approach. \u201cI have to do everything hand-drawn,\u201d he said. In the end, he designed his own curriculum and after a year left for the real world.<\/p>\n
Most landscape designers use the computer, but Shaw stuck with his hand-drawn plans. The approach ended up being an asset. \u201cMost clients like to see things that are hand-drawn.\u201d He said they appreciate the craftsmanship, the artistry and the personal touch. Do they want to keep the drawings, frame them even, like art? Shaw laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s funny,\u201d he says. \u201cYeah, they do. It\u2019s almost embarrassing.\u201d Almost, but not quite.<\/p>\n
Where most designers check out after their drawings have been approved and passed on to the contractor, Shaw sticks around. \u201cI try to be involved with the project from start to finish. I go to the meetings. I involve myself. You can\u2019t just rely on the architect\u2019s drawings. They\u2019ll be out of scale. The measurements can be off. I go out to the job and measure myself.\u201d He lays out the paths on site, and usually places the plants himself.<\/p>\n
As far as working with the clients, he\u2019s not above a little handholding. The teacher in him comes out. \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to be told what they want. They know what they want, but they don\u2019t know plant material. They aren\u2019t thinking about focal points, aspects, north-south orientation, the shadows from the arbor, where their pizza oven is going to be facing. That\u2019s what so great about it. You come in, and it\u2019s a brand new deal every time. I try not to repeat myself. I\u2019m always looking at new stuff. But it\u2019s selfish in a sense. I see something [a tree or a gate for example] and I think, I\u2019d like to put this in my garden. After I was done with my house, I felt a big void. I live vicariously through my clients, through my projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say he\u2019s \u201cdone\u201d with his own landscape.<\/p>\n
\u201cClients come to the house and I walk them through and we talk about plant material. People have a hard time visualizing. But it\u2019s a small garden,\u201d he said. \u201cI treat it like a lab. I spend eight hours in that garden a week. I keep putting in more. Barbara says to me, where are you going to put that plant? And I tell her, \u2018I\u2019ll find a place for it. I\u2019ll find a place.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information about Raymond Shaw, call 619-696-9179, or visit rayshawlandscapedesign.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Landscape designer Raymond Shaw fell some distance from the Family Tree By Michael Good Raymond Shaw came to his profession\u2014he\u2019s been a landscape designer for the last decade\u2014the usual way: by complete accident. It\u2019s only in retrospect that everything seems inevitable, that graphic artist to junior high school teacher to landscape designer seems a logical […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"House Calls: Like father, not quite like son","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}