Design Time Management

[Flore]

I have a freelance designer that I am feeling is taking too long to do certain tasks, but am not sure if my expectations are too high.

I was curious to see what was considered reasonable amount of time to create each of the following pieces for a wedding, so taking into consideration that you would be making several of exactly the same design:

-corsage pin-on
-corsage glued
-boutonniere
-pew bow consisting of ribbon bow and three flowers wired to bow.

How long would you consider a reasonable amount of time to produce each of these??.....

 

[Palms]

corsage pin-on - 5 minutes maximum and i would do them all at the same time, all the wiring of all materials and then put them all together.

-corsage glued - 5 minutes max

-boutonniere - 3 minutes max

-pew bow consisting of ribbon bow and three flowers wired to bow. - 5 minutes.

My staff would tell you that is the one thing that i will not have and its dithering, get your materials, make your design, move onto the next.

Hope this helps

 

[Flore]

Thanks, Palms. That is VERY helpful. I'm actually being more generous with what I was expecting, so you have made me feel so much better!

 

[terri]

I agree with Palms (I love some of the words you use- dithering?))
Lets give him/her another 2 min. to make it an even 20.
terri

 

[RWK]

My one add to this is there has to be a little ( and I stress LITTLE ) time for creativity if warranted.

If this is a production type design...the prototype made and the designer copying the prototype.....then those time by Palms are pretty much what they should be. If these were all one-of-a-kind creations......then a little bit more time is needed for the creativity, the idea to flow.

 

[Palms]

I agree to a certain extent and that is where the pricing comes in.

If these items are standard items, then that to me is the time they should take and the creativity should also be able to incorporated into that time, you know a couple of loops here, folded leaves, any aspects of distinction that has already been agreed on consultation. If there is a brief on a consult then really the florist should not have to think too much about the creativity, for these items as the details will be in the brief. IMHO.

If someone wanted a wow piece they would get a little more time but they would also be paying more.

 

[Johan]

I think times totally depends of how much detail you have in each design. The type of glue you use. Some cures quicker than others. I have very bad hands so I can take double that to make those items. Normally my fingers are full of plasters, so I can get quite court up when guttering. But I can make a hand tied bouquet in double guick time.

If your designer purely does that, just design, then the times are about right maybe a couple of minutes longer per design to be fair.

I very rarely manage to make a design from start to finish without being interupted. What a wonderful thought 'no interuptions'.

 

[JCT]

guttering? Translation please. Sounds awful.

 

[Johan]

guttering? Translation please. Sounds awful.

Taping the flowers when they have being wired. The tape we use is called guttacol. So we call it guttering.

 

[HeatherTuckey]

corsage pin-on - 5 minutes maximum and i would do them all at the same time, all the wiring of all materials and then put them all together.

-corsage glued - 5 minutes max

-boutonniere - 3 minutes max

-pew bow consisting of ribbon bow and three flowers wired to bow. - 5 minutes.

My staff would tell you that is the one thing that i will not have and its dithering, get your materials, make your design, move onto the next.

Hope this helps

These times look right to me, AFTER the flowers and supplies have all been gathered.

Just one possibility.... sometimes its the steps to gather items needed. We use carts and instruct the designers to have everything they need within reach, or just a few steps.

Also, sometimes especially when people are nervous (perhaps at a new shop) they try too hard to fit in with everyone (conversation) and they don't even realize they're stopping their designing to talk. I know it sounds odd - but there are some people that have a hard time talking without eye contact.

I'm always yelling "STOP... going in the cooler" so I don't miss the conversation... then I yell "continue" about 5 seconds later - LOL

 

[Palms]

Yeah Heather, that is what i based those times on. I have a sheet with all wedding flowers ordered, and each design has a cross reference as to what exactly should be in it with a description on it. I find this reduces dithering times. If i see my staff staring at the flower stand wondering what goes in what i just say, look at your recipie.

Before we start a wedding we have a 10 minute meeting where i go through what designs are needed and the styles etc. I then give everyone a list of jobs that they need to do and they then refer to the wedding sheet for information re content and design. I have already done the laborius bit.

I love efficiency and am a little bit anal with it, can't help it

 

[Johan]

Yeah Heather, that is what i based those times on. I have a sheet with all wedding flowers ordered, and each design has a cross reference as to what exactly should be in it with a description on it. I find this reduces dithering times. If i see my staff staring at the flower stand wondering what goes in what i just say, look at your recipie.

Before we start a wedding we have a 10 minute meeting where i go through what designs are needed and the styles etc. I then give everyone a list of jobs that they need to do and they then refer to the wedding sheet for information re content and design. I have already done the laborius bit.

I love efficiency and am a little bit anal with it, can't help it

I do this Paula, it's the only way to do a wedding IMO. It saves on wastage too as the stem count is more exact.

 

[Flore]

Heather-I think you hit the nail on the head in this particular scenario. This particular designer LOVES to talk. And I notice she stops what she's doing a lot to make her points.

 

[Palms]

Flore tell her what she is doing, I am the biggest chatterbox when i am working but my hands are always moving. If i see one of the girls stopping i just say "carry on working while we are chatting hon", and you are right, i dont think she will realise and will probably be fine.

 

[CHR]

-corsage glued - 5 minutes max

-boutonniere - 3 minutes max

-pew bow consisting of ribbon bow and three flowers wired to bow. - 5 minutes.

Wow. By this standard we're turtles here. We're lucky to get a matching prom wrist corsage (glued) and bout done, packaged & labeled in 30 minutes - but most of ours are custom.

The difference may be in the level of detailing. We hand-wire all our leaves for bouts (ivy, euc or whatever) and ribbon wrap in a matching color. Assembling the wrist corsage bases takes a lot of time, too.

For straight assembly with all pre-work done, we might get close to those times, but there's so much more to the designs than the final taping.

 

[Palms]

I do wire all materials for buttonholes and corsages too, and generally use ruscus, two ivy leaves, 3 short stemmed roses, and then filler flowers. I may add in a feather, loops of grass, a diamante or any other disitinctive look. I will say though, that i do everything at 100 miles an hour (apart from drive), i really cant help it, its just my nature..

They are not so much custom though. They still look nice and i keep the price right down, over here i find that they are not one of the designs that people like to spend a lot on. Therefore i cant spend a lot of time on them.

Having said that i have thought about a tier pricing for these and may start to offer a deluxe corsage. Of course if they were spending more, i would allow more time.

Just some examples of our standard corsages, that would take me that time and i promise you, everthing would be taped correctly.

 

[BenNJ]

If the items are repetitive and do not need to be individually designed have you considered some form of payment by piece. Flat rate so much per corsage, bout or pew bow. Or so much per hour plus so much per piece at a lower rate. Or an hourly rate plus a bonus based on production. This something like the flatrate tables used by automechanics and autobody shops.

 

[cherrie]

I can whip out a rose boutonniere in about 5 minutes- incuding satin wrapping the stem. A wrist crosage takes at least 15-20 minutes. I try to have everything in place the ribbon, corsage band etc - but it still takes a about 15-20. Generally everything is custom and I am a nut to detail.

I've really picked up speed on mulitples, thanks to Rhonda, and her sharing the corsage making stand her husband made for her. I just line them up on the pvd pipe and glue away.

This bout took longer than 5 minutes.

 

[Rhonda]

Heather-I think you hit the nail on the head in this particular scenario. This particular designer LOVES to talk. And I notice she stops what she's doing a lot to make her points.

my pet peeve... hands can continue to move at their job not illustrate the words

 

[HydrangeaBleu]

Thanks for your input CHR. I was starting to think that I was really slow!! Everything I do is custom as well - all the foundation flowers are wired & taped and assembly to a wristlet takes a bit of time. I tend to glue in filler to somewhat hide mechanics. Wrist corsage probably takes me 20-25 minutes depending on how picky I get. Guess I need to work on my speed a bit