Established in September 2024, Digital Landscapes was born out of frustration regarding the available training for Vectorworks and SketchUp – deemed too technical, dry and protracted. Landscape designer, graphic artist and tutor, Fiona Silk and garden designer, Emily Sharpe strive to do better.
Experienced tutors and (often) part of James Alexander-Sinclair‘s garden design team, the enterprising duo have put their expertise into their new venture, Digital Landscapes which provides courses and tutoring for landscapers, designers, horticulturalists and gardeners on design software such as SketchUp, Photoshop, AI tools and Vectorworks.
Silk and Sharpe aim to build skills and confidence to use these complex pieces of software, providing concise, instructions without the “jargon-filled waffle” in a “warm and friendly” manner. As a team, they aim to cater for as many different learning styles as possible, offering group zoom-based courses, recorded self-study videos to in-person classroom and bespoke training.
Meet the founders
Fiona Silk graduated with an honours degree in Computer Science but retrained, graduating in 2011 from the London College of Garden Design (LCGD). Since, Silk has been working in garden design and also freelancing for garden designers such as Jo Thompson, Butter Wakefield, Adolfo Harrison, Mark Gregory, and James Alexander Sinclair. She has been tutoring at the LCGD since 2014 and she taught at Capel Manor from 2016 to 2020.
Emily Sharpe has a Masters in Ecology and Environmental Management. Working with GIS Software to map species and habitat distribution, Sharpe found her ‘calling’ and started to train others to use the software, improving workflows. Sharpe graduated with distinction from the Cotswold Gardening School in 2014 and has run a garden design studio for the last ten years.