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Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a floral designer. Feel free to use our job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a floral designer.

 

Who is a Floral Designer?

Floral designers create decorative arrangements by cutting and arranging live, dried, and silk flowers and plants. They also assist consumers in choosing flowers, vases, ribbons, and other items.

Floral designers can make a single arrangement for a specific occasion or display floral designs in small offices, homes, weddings, birthdays, funerals, and banquets. Things that affect their floral choices are their sense of style and event theme. Customers also ask floral designers to create a single design occasionally; to meet their emotional demands and help them relax. Floral designers should know about different seasons of flowers and when they are easier and cheaper to get.

Floral designers must also be familiar with flowers, their types, and their characteristics. Some flowers like daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths wilt fast, while daisies, sunflowers, and roses stay fresh a bit longer. Not all plants can be touched or used without precaution; some are dangerous such as deadly nightshade, morning glory, fox glove, etc.

There are varieties of colors, looks, and sizes in flowers; some look-alike and might be hard to differentiate. Floral designers should be able to identify the differences in different forms. They should also be able to figure out how many flowers would fit in a specific vase or how many rose petals can cover a carpet.

Floral designers purchase flowers from suppliers. After purchase, they strip the flower leaves of the parts that are not as fresh as they should be. Floral designers also cut new flowers, mix solutions used to feed the flowers, fill the flower containers with the mixtures, and clean the surroundings. They store their flowers in places with cool temperatures to prevent withering fast but stay fresh for long.

Floral designers sign long-term contracts with offices, restaurants, homes, and hotels to arrange flowers and replace them when they are old; it can be weekly or monthly. The procedure can help the flowers look fresh and lovely. Sometimes, they work with interior decorators to design homes and offices.

Floral designers advise customers on flowers and designs based on their experience. They beautifully showcase flowers to attract potential customers. A floral designer may incorporate objects like stuffed animals or balloons and ornamental vases to create a floral arrangement.

Floral designers usually make and store bouquets, flower crowns, and other simple designs for sale; so if a customer requires a complex style, they have to pre-order it, which the designer can make before their collection date. Flower designers are in charge of floral arrangements for a particular occasion, such as a wedding or banquet, set up the floral decorations immediately before the event, and remove them when it is over. Floral designers can also sign contracts with event planners for recurring events like weddings, birthdays, etc. They should advise customers on caring for their flowers by cross-checking the appropriate temperature, and how often to change the water they keep the flowers.

You have to be too at accounting as a floral designer, especially if you are self-employed or work at floral shops because you have to record sales, track expenses, and file taxes. The large-scale florists employ people, cashiers, and accountants, to handle accounting-related stuff in their business.

Floral designers create eye-catching arrangements by combining their artistic ability with their knowledge of flower kinds. They need to know how long cut flowers last, their qualities, delicacy, and potential toxicity to animals. Flowers and foliage are also grown or purchased from wholesalers by a floral designer.

Floral designers frequently collaborate with event planners and interior designers, and they may provide businesses and individuals with daily, weekly, or monthly flower arrangements. A florist must give excellent customer service and be well-organized. They should also possess artistic and creative abilities.

 

Floral Designer Job Description

Below are the floral designer job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a floral designer job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.

• Buy fresh flowers and other necessary additions from distributors and vendors to secure enough quantity to suit customers’ requests.
• Suggest florals and foliage for each arrangement based on the customer’s budget, design, event, time, and delivery venue.
• Design flowers to depict emotions or tastes.
• Take orders, respond to calls, and package flower arrangements.
• Prepare real and fake flowers for special events and in the home and business.
• Create conventional corsages, bouquets, wreaths, wedding decorations, and unique creations.
• Come up with unique designs.
• Agree on a fee for the services you provide.
• Collaborate with customers to create a concept for their homes, offices, and events such as birthdays, weddings, funerals, and parties.
• Handle a variety of florals and foliage.
• Locate vendors who can provide seasonal flowers.
• Separate and discard withered flowers.
• Educate customers on how to tend for, maintain, and handle flowers and the arrangements.
• Recommend floral designs to clients, and assist in arranging and decorating where their clients request.
• Preserve and hydrate flowers are to avoid wilting
• Delivery flowers yourself, when necessary
• Create traditional and modern designs by selecting and arranging flowers and ornamental objects.
• Attend to in-store customers and process their payments.
• Have enough wires, foams, ribbons, tapes, and other decorative supplies to avoid being in a fix.
• Keep a detailed record of all floral arrangement orders, special requests, and delivery details.

 

Qualifications

• High school diploma
• University degree (optional)
• Floral design certification is advantageous.
• Gathered some floral design experience via volunteering or internship
• Sound knowledge of different flower types, design, and maintenance.

 

Essential Skills

• Artistic: to create pleasing and unique designs like a floral designer, you need to be artistic. You will need to know to combine colors and varieties of flowers and present them in an appealing form.
• Creativity: creativity is an innate attribute, though one can learn it. Designs and styles have their time to shine, as trends do not stay forever. They evolve and sometimes rotate, so you must be open to new ideas. Floral designers conceptualize designs and translate them to the personalities and interests of their clients. They think of various ways to arrange flowers for an event’s theme, then bring the imagination to life.
• Basic technical skill: Technology keeps evolving, so in whatever career you find yourself in, learn how to understand the basics of technology and be up-to-date as time goes on. Learn basic technical skills that will be helpful in floral design, how to navigate social media platforms, and use a spreadsheet to excel in this career. Also, learn the basics of managing a blog or website; if you want to own one, so you can display your designs and attract potential clients to patronize your service.
• Time management: Floral design has a sense of urgency because you have to arrange the displays in time for the event. You should catch up with deadlines as often as possible, or you may lose customers and potential ones and spoil your credibility. There will be times when clients may give you late information for an upcoming event; you have to be sharp and quick in coordinating, preparing, and decorating.
• Great floral knowledge: When you first go into floral designing, you might not know how it works, but do not worry, you will learn. As you study floral design and for your internship, you will learn about flowers. You need to know design principles such as; balance, contrast, dominance, proportion, rhythm, and scale. You also need to know various types of flowers; and how to select fresh ones so that no one cheats you in the line of business.
• Communication Skills: Floral designing will require you to interact with buyers and suppliers often, so you need to be great at communicating. You will discuss numerous floral design alternatives to customers and how to care for the plants and flowers after the occasion. Because you will be placing orders with suppliers, you will need to express what you need and ask questions to ensure you know what to expect.
• Detail-oriented: Take into detail the orders as customers request them and ensure to fulfill them accordingly. If a customer asks for a rose flower but you ship another flower specie instead of roses, you will have a dissatisfied customer who will not return to place another order or refer you to anyone. You have to be detailed in floral designing because everything about floristry requires paying attention to details; mixing colors, cutting flowers, flower sizing, choice of design, checking for fresh ones, and taking orders.
• Independence: Teamwork is required when working in a team, prepare for times they might give you individual tasks. You may also be self-employed or just starting in your floral business, which means you will work alone most time. Learn how to build your unique way of doing things with innovation and originality.
• Customer service: This is the process of assisting current and potential customers by answering inquiries, resolving issues, and delivering good service. Prepare floral arrangements according to customer requests, deliver them and set up wedding flowers, and give outstanding one-on-one customer service as a florist. Other skills providing excellent customer service entail are; creating floral designs, processing purchase requests, doing quality assurance assessments, working individually to give outstanding customer service, setting floral arrangements, and processing supplies.
• Marketability: Go for market research, learn presentations, and develop sales strategies, to promote and sell your market.
• Self-control: Learn how to retain your demeanor, control emotions, and be slow to anger. You will encounter all sorts of customers, from the impatient ones to the rude ones; you need a high level of self-control and patience to deal with them.
• Photography: Not everyone can afford to hire photographers, especially if their businesses are starting or are small businesses. Photography is an underrated skill many people overlook, not knowing it will help promote their business. As a floral designer, you should learn basic photography to take pictures of your work from the right angles and display them through frames, your portfolio, and your website (if you have one). Some floral designers have beautiful designs but are not good at photography. Bad photography reduces the appeal and aesthetics of their works to potential buyers.

 

How to Become a Floral Designer

Floral designing is one of those careers that do not require a university degree. From a recent survey, most floral designers possess just high school certificates. Before getting into college or the university, young people take jobs that do not require an advanced degree to work and earn some money for different purposes. However, it is not bad if you already have a university degree before applying for the role.

After you have gotten your high school diploma or university degree, you will go ahead to learn the basics of floral design and plant care. It comprises studying fundamental flower design and plant care skills used by professional florists.

If you want to advance your floral design knowledge, you can attend floral schools, vocational schools, and community colleges that offer programs in floral design; these programs are not compulsory in this career and last from a few weeks to a year. Go to floral shops or florists and apply for intern and volunteer opportunities to gain more knowledge via hands-on experience. As you acquire knowledge and gather experience, your floral skills will improve. Some techniques you will learn are how to arrange flowers, match colors, purchase and maintain flowers and plants, use flowering tools, package a floral present, etc.

After your internship, you have gained some experience, so create a portfolio or a website of your floral education and designs; this will show potential clients your talents, accomplishments, and knowledge. You can create a well-written CV to showcase your job history and dedication to the profession.

After doing all these, apply for floral roles if you are interested in working for a florist or in a floral shop.

 

Where to Work as a Floral Designer

• Grocery shops
• Warehouses
• Flower shops
• Self-employed – can own your own business and get contracts for events
• Event planning and decoration agencies

 

Floral Designer Salary Scale

In any career salary scale, the level and experience are important in determining the salary range of the employee. A floral designer may earn from $20,840 to $42,655. They can make a yearly salary of $37,100.

In London, United Kingdom, floral designers earn an annual salary of £37,495 per year. Their salary ranges from £26,562 to £45,470.

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