Almost two weeks ago I drove down to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. This was only my second trip down to Phipps. The last time I went there was almost three or four years ago with my sister and our cousin. This trip down there really took me out of my comfort zone. I haven’t really driven down to the Squirrel Hill/Oakland area in a couple of years. The last time I drove down there was with my mom in a different car. Prior to going there, I had done some research about Phipps and I had a few questions, too. I wanted to know when it would be a good time for to me visit and if I could take my tripod with me. I found out that Mondays and Tuesdays were the least crowded days and that the Conservatory was the quietest between 3 PM and 5 PM. I wasn’t allowed to take my tripod with me because I had to be member in order to do so. Also, I would have had to call ahead of time, too. So once I got I there, I paid for my ticket and grabbed the membership guide and the general guide that were available at the ticket counter. When I made my way upstairs, I was greeted by two of the curators there. One of them walked in with me and she explained to me how to make my way through here. She also pointed out to me, Romero. She told me that Romero was a corpse flower and that it last bloomed 3 years ago. It didn’t bloom yet when I was there and I’m thinking of going back to check that out again. So anyway, I took some notes along the way and a boatload of photographs as well. I found myself being to drawn to different flowers and the leaves with different colors and textures. I also liked how Phipps integrated their art collection with their plant collection. My favorite places there were the Tropical Forest Conservatory (indoor rainforest!) and the Sunken Garden (couch made of flowers!). After roaming around taking photos and notes, I ended my trip by visiting the indoor cafe there. While there, I looked at my photos and started to sketch some things out.

When I got home, I imported all of my photographs and started tagging them according to my notes and to what I thought would be good visual references. I also created a Pinterest board for this project and started to pin examples of floral typography, brochure layouts and visual approaches/directions. I’m still looking around for color schemes right now. I have been searching for different floral based color schemes. I also have been dissecting the guides and making mind maps based on Phipps as well as the rooms and gardens there.

I took about 428 photographs that day. Now below is just a fraction of the photos I took, but they each are key moments from my trip. I have also included my notes and some of my sketches from that day. As always, click on the images to enlarge them!