How to Become a Landscape Artist: Start Your New Career!

Before we begin, you need to know if it’s worth it to start a career as a landscape artist in the first place. After all, if it won’t pay the bills or fulfill you, what’s the point, right?

Luckily, in terms of demand, this is a GREAT job to pursue! Right now, in fact, many landscape designers are actually booked solid through 2022 already!

As a landscape designer, here are the sort of tasks you can expect to do on the job:

Next, if you want to know how to be a landscape artist, it’s worth knowing how much you can expect to make from this career path. Here are some average salary ranges for landscape artists/designers, based on location:

When you get a proper education, you’re investing time, effort, and money into your subject-matter expertise. As a result, you earn the right to price your landscape artist services in a way that properly reflects that.

Not to mention, if your design business offers other types of services, too, you can raise those rates as well!

To be a landscape architect, you’ll likely need post-secondary education from a university. Typically, this will be in the form of a Bachelor’s degree or a Master’s. Additionally, you may also need to be licensed by your State/location.

Since landscape designers technically don’t need an accredited license, post-secondary education from a college or university isn’t mandatory for this profession. Of course, you’ll need to draw from the same type of skill-set as a landscape architect, so getting professional landscape design training is still a MUST!

In order to be a landscape artist, there are certain skills you’ll need to have if you want to truly thrive. For instance, you’ll need to:

Okay, so as we discussed earlier, you’ll probably need either a Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree in order to work as a landscape architect. However, you don’t need a degree to be a landscape designer.

But remember: I also mentioned that proper training is still essential.

Why is this? Simply put, prospective clients will never want to hire a landscape designer who can’t prove that they know what they’re doing. I mean, would you? 

Landscape services aren’t cheap. Furthermore, they play a huge role in the overall look and appeal of a home. Booking the wrong person can lead to disastrous results! As such, clients will only want to hire legitimate experts that they can trust to deliver top-quality results.

If you want to have a truly successful career, your best bet is to enter the field with a reputable, accredited education under your belt. In a little bit, I’ll delve into this further and break down the sort of landscape design course you should be enrolling in.

Okay, now that you know what it takes to be a landscape artist, how can you actually start your career as a landscape artist?

By now, you should have a pretty good idea of what a landscape artist does, since we covered this earlier when looking at their job description and typical responsibilities.

But if I were to ask you, “What does a typical day look like for a landscape artist?”, would you know how to answer that question?

If not, then there’s definitely more digging you can do! Luckily, there’s endless information out there at your disposal. Read some blog articles and publications on the subject. Find landscape artists on social media and see the sort of content they’ve been posting on their channels.

First thing’s first: decide whether you want to get trained in-person or online. The obvious perk of in-person training is that you’ll be in the same physical environment as your peers and instructor. That said, keep in mind that brick-and-mortar schools are always more expensive.

Moreover, you’ll need to work your schedule around the school’s schedule. This means you’ll never have the wiggle room to miss a class. Plus, you’ll have to follow the same pace as everyone else in your course. So, if the program is 6 months long, you won’t be able to graduate any sooner than that.

If you want to become a landscape artist, then QC Design School‘s Landscape Design Course will provide you with everything you need to make this dream a reality!

For starters, it’s worth knowing that this 5-unit program is 100% self-paced and done online. Starting on the day you enroll, you’ll have a full 2 years to finish the course. But if you were to devote a mere 1-2 hours per week on your studies, you could graduate and earn your International Landscape Design Professional (ILDP) certification in as little as 3-6 months!

Once you’ve added a reputable certification and designation to your resume, it’s time to sit down and really think about what you want your career to look like. What kind of landscape artist do you want to be? What are your goals? How will you go about achieving them?

Sit down, grab a pen and paper, and trying answering the following brainstorming questions:

When you first begin your career as a landscape artist, you likely won’t have any projects under your belt. This means you won’t have much yet, in terms of a professional design portfolio.

Until you have these things, it’s going to be challenging to book real, paying clients, as they won’t be able to see visual proof of your landscaping abilities. There will be no raving client testimonials for them to read, or high-quality photos demonstrating how great you are at what you do.

As you start your career, one suggestion is to provide free services – at least, for a limited time. Although it’s not exactly the most financially attractive move, it’s definitely is a smart business move. When you provide complimentary landscape artist services, you’ll be able to gather high-quality images to use in your portfolio.

Furthermore, you’ll also be able to gather positive client reviews that can be used on your website, in newsletters, on social media, etc. Plus, the people you give these free services to could wind up referring you to people they know – which could eventually lead to legitimate, paying jobs!

Here are a few ways you can provide freebies in order to build your landscape design portfolio:

Firstly, you’ll want to set up an official website for your business. Your domain name should be the same as your registered business name. Your website should look professional and clean, rather than clumsy and unorganized. On this site, ensure that your design portfolio is easy to find, since prospective clients will want to browse it.

Additional information you should include on your website is:

Everyone uses social media these days, and it’s undoubtedly a great way to meet others in the industry and secure clients. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest TikTok, and YouTube are just some of the popular platforms you can establish a presence on.

Here are some handy tips to keep in mind when setting up your social media accounts:

Networking will be your GREATEST asset as you become a landscape artist. In fact, I’d even go as far as to say that it’s one of the single smartest ways to advance your career. This is because the design industry is a pretty close community.

As a result, it won’t take long for you to meet and/or become acquainted with the other landscape artists in your local area. You’ll also get to know suppliers, contractors, other types of designers.

Now, remember: just because other landscape artists are technically your “competition” does NOT mean they aren’t also your allies. It’s important for you to establish positive connections with others in the industry – your competitors included.

The reason for this is simple. When you network, you’re increasing your chances of future collaborations, as well as getting client referrals. Other landscape artists might even send potential clients your way, if their own schedule is completely booked (and so long as they trust that you’d do the same for them).