Word of mouth helps designer
By Gillian Drummond
SPECIAL TO THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Przygoda's "outerior" tips
» Remember that chain stores don't always target a localized climate. "We have such extremities with our climate, if you put out the (chain store) furniture you bought in the Midwest, the umbrella is going to be toast in a year."
» You can cool down the feel of your back yard just by the colors you use. "A lot of reds, oranges and yellows create hotness. There are so many varieties of blue, gray and green plants that are going to create the feeling of moisture and lushness."
» Choose "mindful design" with natural landscaping. She applauds the Sonoran Institute's Tucson Community Design Academy , which promotes civic quality and environmental sensitivity. "It changed my values on design."
» contact info
Boxhill Landscape Design's studio will open early April at 299 S. Park Ave. Call 407-9393 or visit www.boxhilldesign.com
For information on the Sonoran Institute, call 290-0828 or visit www.sonoran.org online.
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For a long time, Elizabeth Przygoda's company was building a reputation around obscurity.
People were hearing of the young landscape designer, but they couldn't track her down. They searched in vain for her ads in magazines. They looked in the phone book, but her company wasn't listed.
Word spread through word of mouth, but — like a VIP guest list or underground rave — only those in the know were making it to the party.
The reason was simple. In the early days, Przygoda couldn't afford to advertise. And often she didn't get around to putting her details in the phone book.
But she quickly realized she was creating a buzz, and a good one at that. So much so that she still tries to shun advertising and to keep things, if not exclusive, certainly quiet.
"People were calling us and saying, 'You were so hard to get ahold of.' But they're happy to know that we only operate through referrals. And I like it that way, too," she says.
But now with three other employees, a roster of residential and commercial clients and a book deal, Boxhill Landscape Design is bowing to the inevitable and going a bit more public.
Przygoda has plans for a showroom, opening early April, where clients can browse her own library of design books and see samples of fabric, lighting and materials.
She's calling the space, in Tucson's Lost Barrio district, an "open studio."
"I want people to feel like they can come in and bring their own swatches or their roof tiles and spread around their stuff," she says. "They can even be with another designer."
Przygoda, 32, didn't set out to be a landscape designer, but you could say she was always headed in that direction.
She and many of her friends are "plant nerds," she studied theater set design at the University of Arizona and worked in theater and film production.
Add to that several jobs working for landscape design companies and a mother who designs for international hotels, and you see why she ended up in the business she's in.
That's not to say it was without teething problems, though. Przygoda sheepishly recounts the story of her first job, for a client — custom builder Dante Archangeli — she met at a trade show.
The contractor she used managed to hit a water line to Dante and Diana Archangeli's pool and flooded the yard. Przygoda had to foot the bill. The lesson? "Everybody is licensed now, everything is done right," she says.
The business is now more than 2 years old, and Przygoda has branched out in several directions.
She's a frequent public speaker and runs classes at Tohono Chul Park.
Her book, a visual reference guide of Southwest landscape designs, is due out at the end of the year.
And she has her own product line in the works, from Mediterranean-inspired water features to slogan T-shirts and Boxhill seed mixes.
She is also in the process of copyrighting the phrase "outerior design." Landscaping is more than moving a few rocks around and buying greenery, she says. It's about having a yard or patio that reflects you, the inside of your home and a flow from one to the other. "So it's not like you're stepping out into another universe."
Przygoda is pragmatic about where yards fall in the home remodeling hierarchy. "People are going to spend money inside first because that's where they live."
But while they can spend "millions of dollars" on the insides of their homes, she says, decisions they make on the outsides can reach them "in a way that a stainless steel stove can't."
She believes yards, patios and public parks are vital for everyone, providing relaxation, therapy and sensory memories. "Gardens," she says simply, "are life."
Przygoda's "outerior" tips
» Remember that chain stores don't always target a localized climate. "We have such extremities with our climate, if you put out the (chain store) furniture you bought in the Midwest, the umbrella is going to be toast in a year."
» You can cool down the feel of your back yard just by the colors you use. "A lot of reds, oranges and yellows create hotness. There are so many varieties of blue, gray and green plants that are going to create the feeling of moisture and lushness."
» Choose "mindful design" with natural landscaping. She applauds the Sonoran Institute's Tucson Community Design Academy , which promotes civic quality and environmental sensitivity. "It changed my values on design."
» contact info
Boxhill Landscape Design's studio will open early April at 299 S. Park Ave. Call 407-9393 or visit www.boxhilldesign.com
For information on the Sonoran Institute, call 290-0828 or visit www.sonoran.org online.
● Contact freelance reporter Gillian Drummond at GCDrummond@aol.com.
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