learn how to design your perfect eden

one card at a time

using the design your eden card deck

instructions to help explain the content and the purpose of the deck

print version

We’ve included the most recent version of the Design Your Eden instructions via PDF so you can view them on your computer, phone, or tablet. You may even want to print them out for your reference.

prefer to learn online?

Follow the instructions below.

01. getting started

Welcome to Design Your Eden!

1.To maximize your first experience with the deck we recommend you PAUSE before initially reading through all of the instruction cards and instead take a spontaneous, unguided exploration through the deck.

2. Spread out the ELEMENT, VALUE, CONNECTOR, and SEEN AS cards on a flat surface.

3. What uses suggest themselves to you? How do you intuitively imagine yourself interacting with this deck?

4. Spend as long as you want with the deck on your own terms, then return to the instruction cards for additional suggestions for use.

02. deck contents

DESIGN YOUR EDEN YARD AND GARDEN DESIGN DECK IS COMPRISED OF 226 UNIQUE CARDS

Each card is intentionally designed with a specific purpose to help you create the ideal yard, garden, or outdoor space of your dreams.

03. Creativity Principles

The Design Your Eden Card Deck is designed to tap into five key creativity principles:

  • Words are abstract thought units that call up a host of subtle connotations and personal associations.

    Using words for yard and garden design allows for different creative possibilities than images.

  • The cards are essentially a menu of possible choices. It is easier to be creative within a defined set of possibilities than when starting from either a blank slate or a limitless slate.

  • A card deck engages our sense of touch and related brain centers. Ideas on cards can be held, displayed, moved, and shuffled. The physicality of the cards mirrors the physical spaces we are designing.

  • The act of comparing one thing to another is metaphor. It is a supremely creative act. Comparisons, especially unlikely ones, can result in huge leaps of creativity for our design work.

  • Drawing or flipping a card from a shuffled deck is the ultimate act of randomness. When we integrate randomness into the design process, we break our normal associative patterns and allow for tremendous innovation to enter….as well as a little absurdity...which may itself be creative!

“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.”

— Henry David Thoreau

04. LEVELS OF USE

Decide which of these paths best describes the way you want to experience the Design Your Eden Card Deck:

GUIDED EXPERIENCE: I want guidance and step-by-step instructions on how to use the deck to design or improve my outdoor space.

EXPLORATION: I am more interested in the overall concepts and am willing to explore the deck and find my own meanings in it.

ADVANCED DESIGN: I am a landscape design professional who wants to use the deck as a prompt for creativity and to facilitate deeper and more connective conversations with clients.

THEN CHOOSE YOUR STARTING PATH

Exploration and Advanced Design are under construction. All activities can be accessed through the GUIDED EXPERIENCE Path.