Design Star: Lessons from the New York School of Flower Design

If you are thinking should I buy this book? The answer is YES! This book is an easy read with so much helpful information. It teaches you how to make hand-tied bouquets, vase arrangements, and even boutonnières. It has directions from A to Z that will make you a pro in no time. I have made multiple items from the book, and I cannot believe how well they turned out. Whether you are professional or floral arrangements are your hobby, I strongly suggest reading this book. It will make your dinner parties memorable and your guest in awe. Flower arrangements are a great housewarming present, especially when you take the time to do it yourself; it shows how thoughtful you can be. And hey, if you want to take on your wedding, then this is the book you need. Do not hesitate; you will be glad you purchased this book.

Because of my love for floral designs and the floral industry, I recently attended Michael Gaffney's classes and bought his first book, Design Star. The format and pictures are beautifully laid out, and the instructions are simplistic to follow and apply. Reading the book and learning alongside Michael, takes the fear factor out of designing. I have the utmost respect for Michael's floral expertise, his unpretentious, professional teaching demeanor, and his sense of humor. If you want to be affiliated with the best of the best in the industry, I implore you to purchase Design Star.Carol Jean Moran-Carroll

This really inspired me! And it's super well created. I want to learn floral design, and this gave me the two top things I wanted: to know how to reorganize grocery-store bouquets, and how to arrange a dozen roses simply but beautifully. It matches the content from the authors videos also (that you can find on Youtube). First half is instructions, and just when you're getting saturated with learnings, it showcases pictures. This is quality book, printed on high-quality glossy paper, designed to impress. Love it. I may attend the author's live classes next, we'll see.

The book was in very good condition. It was exactly as described.

I decided to take a flower design class through a community college. I reinforced my learning by looking up ideas and techniques on the internet. I ran into Michael Gaffney's Youtube 101 videos and decided to purchase Design Star. The book is beautifully illustrated and written in straight forward and easy to understand terminology. It was very helpful to reinforce what I was learning and gave me great ideas on flower combinations, designs and current styles. I did find the book a little lengthy with same pictures being used repetitively throughout the book. I would have appreciated less same photo recurrence.Overall the book is informative and very helpful for the beginner.

Design Star is an enjoyable to read with basic rules designers can utilize to create hundreds of beautiful arrangements. Michael has made learning the basics of design enjoyable and fun!

The beautiful photos, a lot of information and very educational contents are there. All is beyond my expectations. It stimulates my love of art and flowers. Excellent!

Loved the pictures that went with the instructions. Almost half of the book is photos of his work. They are beautiful, but it could have been seasonal ideas.

Design Star was the first of three books I purchased by this author. Just starting in the florist industry and this is one of my sources of inspiration. Michael makes designing complex-looking floral arrangments, of many sorts, simple. Do take the time to read the text, there is not a whole lot, it is concise, clear, and provides context to the photos in the book. This book inspired me to attend Michael's Design101School (American School of Flower Design) in New York--wow, truly a talented designer, storyteller, and teacher. Well worth adding to your floral library.

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I came across this book through a chance encounter with the YouTube videos by Michael. The ideas although for classic design are so fresh and I felt the book was a great reference to go back to. Would recommend for anyone who wants to up their design skills. Go and look at his points on Creativity and it will give fresh hope to those of us who felt we didn't have it. A wonderful branch of design.

An absolute must for all beginners. Fantastic insight into the secrets, architecture and the design principles of floristry..a must have for all who aspire to be design stars.

I'm so thankful to Michael Gaffney for turning me around .... I had hung up my scissors for good but now the re-think has moved in and I'm ready to go. I loved being a florist, hard work, long hours and for me little return but now the doors been opened and yes I've seen the light. How to do what I love and get paid.... novel.. Can't thank this man enough xxxx Im not a florist any more I'm a Floral Designer .... yay happy days