Interview
Transcript
0:00 Victoria Bartolotto
Hello everyone, my name is Victoria, and today we are talking with Lindsay Swinford, a professional creative working from and within South Carolina. As we get started, can you just tell us a little bit about your current career and where you’re from?
0:12 Lindsay Swinford
I’m originally from Northeast Alabama, and I have been in South Carolina almost two years now. I’ve been in the floral design industry professionally for ten years, probably dabbled in it around twenty. I’ve recently made the full-time leap from part-time with a full-time job to just doing this full-time now. And it has over-exceeded my expectations, so it was a really good leap.
00:43 Victoria Bartolotto
Awesome. So, before we get into the details of your profession, we have the little segment, “One Career, Sixty Seconds” where you describe your job in an elevator pitch style, similar to a professional pitch. Are you ready? You can give it your best shot.
01:02 Lindsay Swinford
Okay, okay, I think so.
01:07 Victoria Bartolotto
Alright. I’ll start the timer, and I’ll let you know when you have 30 seconds, and when you have around 10 seconds left, if that’s good with you.
01:13 Lindsay Swinford
That’s good.
01:14 Victoria Bartolotto
And… go.
01:16 Lindsay Swinford
The world of floral design helps you capture memories and special events, while also exploring all the different color palettes and different design styles out there to leave a lasting impact on every person that you meet.
01:30 Victoria Bartolotto
Wow! That was great, thank you!
01:32 Lindsay Swinford
Okay.
01:33 Victoria Bartolotto:
Thank you so much! That was, that was perfect.
So as a floral designer, is there anything in South Carolina, or your particular region, that brings something unique to your work? Does South Carolina have an influence on you compared to people or professionals in either Alabama or other states that you’ve worked in?
07:35 Lindsay Swinford
South Carolina is incredibly diverse, more diverse than where I lived in North Alabama. North Alabama, you had a lot of the same families that had been in the same business for generation after generation. They developed a certain style, a certain look, which is not necessarily a bad thing as far as branding, but here, it’s something different all the time. You can go into ten different florists in the region, and everything looks different.
I love that because I love seeing different things all the time. I don’t want to see the same triangle-shaped carnation arrangement everywhere you go. And it feels like people here aren’t afraid to use something different, to think outside the box. So, I’ve really enjoyed that. I feel like I’ve grown as a designer being here, given a little more creative freedom than I have been.
08:24 Victoria Bartolotto
Awesome, yeah, I’ve… I originally am from the north, so coming down to South Carolina, everything was just so different. It was great, because you have so many different people bringing in new ideas and different perspectives, and it’s just a wonderful place.
08:38 Lindsay Swinford
I have met more people from up north than I have ever met in my entire life, here. And I’ve traveled all over the Southeast, but every like, one in ten people are from South Carolina. The rest are all from somewhere else, so it’s been a really fun melting pot to be in the middle of.
08:58 Victoria Bartolotto
Definitely. Was there a certain defining moment in your life that impacted your creative journey? Was there something that inspired you specifically about becoming a floral designer?
09:12 Lindsay Swinford
I’ve always kind of been, I guess you could just say, a creative before this. I did professional photography for a long time, specializing in newborn and lifestyle photography. When COVID hit, it killed me. It really hurt my business. I mean, just dropped it to nothing.
I was just looking for something else, anything else, and a florist near me had an opening, just for part-time. I went in, and it was just like I had always been there. I just picked up what she was teaching and what she was showing so fast that she was like, “Can I make you full-time?” And that was kind of like, okay, “You know what? Maybe I’m really good at this. Maybe this is what I’m supposed to be doing.” And then so, from there on, I just kind of have stuck with it.
10:06 Victoria Bartolotto
Is there a particular flower or color that you love to work with, or will go to?
10:13 Lindsay Swinford
Purples! I love purple. Purples and anything dark, maybe jewel toned. My sister aggravates me and tells me I’m a pastel goth, because all my clothes are black, but I love color, too, you know what I mean?
You won’t hardly ever find me using all the same color in anything. Like, there’s gonna be some crazy pops in there that you didn’t think about putting together, and that’s fun too. Getting people out of their comfort zone to try new things. I love anything purple. It doesn’t have to be a rose or a lily, like, just I love it. I like all of it.
10:52 Victoria Bartolotto
Speaking of particulars, was there a project or a client that you produced which really showcased your creativity in a way that it never had before?
11:03 Lindsay Swinford
I feel like it was more of testing creativity. A dear friend of mine, a co-worker, was getting married. She already had a florist lined up, but asked for her bridal bouquet, and the bridal party made their own flowers one night. It was a fun deal. She asked me to do her arbor piece. I did, and I went and made it and installed it. Looked good. Her aunt comes and brings her bridal bouquet in, and it is not even remotely close to the picture. Like, when I say the furthest, when she brought it in, I said, “Oh my god, don’t show it to her.”
11:44 Victoria Bartolotto
Oh, my goodness.
11:46 Lindsay Swinford
And, she was like, “What do you need to fix this? “And I said, “I can’t fix this. We’ve got to start over.”
I made a call to a local florist nearby. We just bought loose stems from them, what they had that were luckily in her colors. In a bridal suite, in literally a walk-in closet, I am putting together this bridal bouquet. It was beautiful, but it was just so different, and it was out of my comfort zone big time, because I had never really worked with orchids in that capacity. It was supposed to have cascading orchids, and I didn’t have everything I needed. So, it was like, “Okay, can I turn them this way? Can I turn them that way?” And we did it. We did the thing, you know? But I’m talking about sweating bullets, like…
12:41 Victoria Bartolotto
Oh, yeah.
12:42 Lindsay Swinford
So, when I walked out with it, her mom was like, “Oh my god, she’s going to love it.” And so, Caitlin walked in, and she said, “Did Miss Terry make that?” And I said, “No, I just made it.” And she looked at her mom, and she said, “I told her she should have made it to begin with.”
So, that worked out good, that worked out great. But yeah, those orchids, man. I need more practice. That’s a challenge every time.
13:11 Victoria Bartolotto
Is there a particular flower that is, besides orchids, or maybe it is orchids, that’s harder to work with? I don’t know anything about floral design.
13:20 Lindsay Swinford
It’s not so much hard to work with, it’s depending on what you’re using them for. Some things have to stay in water. Or they just wilt, faint, and some things you can’t kill them. You know, you could keep a carnation forever, as long as it’s cool, that kind of thing. But some stuff does take extra care. You have to wire those individual orchids, or ranunculus, or things like that; that just takes a lot more time.
13:49 Victoria Bartolotto
Yeah. So, before you thought about going into floral design, was there any kind of fear that you had, even in your time in photography, of becoming a creative professional? About depending on creativity for your work? Was there any kind of fear in that?
14:04 Lindsay Swinford
Absolutely, because I feel like a lot of people just kind of overlook us. It’s professionals that are always there, but I don’t feel like we always get treated as professionals. I think a lot of times we’re treated just as hobbyists. You know?
There’s a lot of education, and there’s a lot of time and learning that a lot of us have put into what we’re doing. Whether it is photography, or art or floral design, there is so much that goes into all of it.
Some say, “Oh, you just get to play with flowers all day.” Well, not exactly. And they say, ”Oh, you get to hold those sweet babies that you take pictures.” Well, there’s more to it, and you can never go into enough detail and make them understand.
But yeah, absolutely, especially, when I have made the jump from going for, to having it full-time now. It was like, is this gonna pay my bills? That’s the million-dollar question. Everybody’s gotta have a career that pays something. It does, and it has. So, I think there’s reservations with it any time you take a chance on anything like this.
15:21 Victoria Bartolotto
Do you have any advice for young adults, or possibly students who have an interest in pursuing a similar career? Is there any particular skills that they should have, or any kind of practice or experience before entering the industry?
15:37 Lindsay Swinford
Just don’t get discouraged if it’s something you love and you feel called to. Keep pursuing it. I think I was, I’m not gonna tell you how old I am, but I think I was mid-thirties when I went into it professionally, and I just regretted not doing it sooner. Even though it was something I had always liked. I just saw that you gotta have that forty-hour-a-week paycheck, no matter what it is.
And, prior to this, I was an alcohol and substance abuse counselor. Before I went in, and I would love to tell you it was rewarding, but it wasn’t for me. And this is. I go to bed every night feeling great.
Just stay on top of it. If you want to do it, do the work. There’s so many great programs out there for people like us, we just gotta find them. And there’s more places making things more available now.
16:34 Victoria Bartolotto
Yeah. Do you have any programs that you would reference, for particularly florals and possibly photography as well? Do you have any kind of programs that you would recommend?
16:43 Lindsay Swinford
My favorite that I have learned so much from is American Institute of Floral Design, and I’m actually going to an in-person class. They do ten a year, and they’re in different areas. I’m going to one, I’m trying to remember if it’s late January, early February of next year.
But a lot of good online things that they teach you, too. And then photography, I did a lot with the New York School of Photography, and….I’m trying to think of the other one. There was two. I can’t think of the other one. It was an online course, too.
17:24 Victoria Bartolotto
Yeah.
Lindsay Swinford
But really and truly, hands-on, or if you can find a wonderful mentor that’s willing to show you, you can learn so much from other people. Sometimes that’s the best teacher. I had an amazing mentor who we still talk weekly. We send flower pictures to each other. I was at Disney two weeks ago, and was sending her pictures of the flowers at the flower show there. There’s people like us out there.
17:58 Victoria Bartolotto
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today!
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