Steve Taylor of C.O.S Design is an award-winning leader in the design and build of gardens that are original, functional and architecturally striking.
Tell us about C.O.S Design.
C.O.S design is a boutique landscape design firm that specialises in landscape, swimming pool, alfresco spaces, as well as home design, extensions and renovations. We are based in Camberwell and the team consists of myself, Managing Director and Principal Designer; Simon White, Head Landscape Architect and Manager; Alana Bloye, Senior Landscape Architect; Melanie Hare, Head Architectural Drafts Person; and Amy Taylor, Junior Landscape Architect and PA.
We design approximately 80 high-end residential projects a year, from small courtyard spaces, large residential blocks through to country acreages in Melbourne, nationally and internationally. We offer initial design consultancy, concept plans, working drawings, town planning applications, trend earring and also ongoing site contract admin services alongside our preferred construction companies.
What inspired you to start C.O.S Design?
As a late-ish starter in the landscape industry, starting as a 24 year old apprentice, and with a Business Management degree from a previous career, I always wanted to do my own thing. I also had a natural talent for drawing, graphics, art at school and general visualisation skills come naturally to me, which my previous career, managing systems, did not fulfill. It was a career I fell into as I missed out on gaining a university placement in landscape architecture and architecture on the final cuts of the then interview/workshop based assessments.
After investing a few years in business management, always feeling that something was missing, a career change was required for my physical and mental well being. I explored my options and put myself through a night school apprenticeship in landscaping. It was purely out of chance as while I was putting my finishing touches to my first ever landscape project, being the front yard of my first home, the course coordinator of landscaping at Swinburne was designing my neighbour’s home and saw my first attempt at landscaping.
He offered me a placement and has since told me he couldn’t say no to my enthusiasm while walking him through my creation. Looking back, I think he must have felt sorry for me! After six months of night school I was interning at a landscape construction company on my days off. I was offered a full-time apprenticeship and became a landscape rookie.
During my schooling I worked for two companies and there was one that opened my eyes to the real world of high-end landscaping – I was hooked. The day I became qualified, I started my own business called “Creative Outdoor Solutions” building gardens of other designers and smaller projects that required no real design. After a year a potential client in Kew asked me for some ideas for her courtyard, which I decided to design for free purely to win the construction-side of the work. We designed and built this courtyard and at the same time I applied for membership with Landscaping Victoria. I was accepted as a member and decided to enter the courtyard into the 2003 Landscape Awards and it won its category. The project was featured in the Herald Sun and we subsequently won 18 months work from the article, 3 of which went on to win awards.
I started charging for designs and the rest is history. Over 70 state and national awards later, we have since dropped our construction services altogether and now focus on design and contract administration services only to ensure we are not stretched across too many elements of our industry. I guess you can say we have come full circle and I am now living the dream I had as a high school graduate. I now also have added bonus of knowing how to build what I design, an asset that I see as invaluable with the complicated landscape industry that now exists.
As for the name Creative Outdoor Solutions, we have since modernised this brand to C.O.S Design as our services are now more diverse and we have increased our design scope to pools, alfresco/outdoor rooms and home design/renovations/extensions where we can ensure the home and garden all work as one.
Tell us about your career and background.
I have hosted three seasons of garden show, ‘Best Gardens Australia’ which airs on 7TWO and Foxtel Lifestyle Home. I regularly speak at home and pool shows, and am an active member of Landscaping Victoria and the Australian Institute of Landscape Designers and Managers. I have been Head Judge for Landscaping Victoria and am also on the steering committee to restructure the landscape design courses across the state. We have also been involved in all seven DesignFest open garden weekends where this year I opened my own garden. There were 40 gardens throughout Victoria and we raised over $130k for children’s charities. The event is run by the Kew and Brighton Rotary. So as you can see, we are also all about giving back to the industry.
Describe a typical day for you.
My day normally starts at 7 – 7.30 am and for three days is a combination of initial design enquiry consultations, design presentations, overseeing design works by my team, new product meetings, liaising with engineers and consultants, site visits for our ongoing contract administration services, an occasional bite to eat (always on the run) and management of my excellent team. I also ensure cash flow, accounts and debtors are all under control on a daily/weekly basis. I normally finish between 6-8pm for those three days a week. The other two days I work from home on the beautiful Mornington Peninsula and do my design work. I still start early but don’t normally finish as late, however I often find my self following up on emails till late most nights. I also occasionally work Saturdays to handle the excess design work as required.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a business?
Create a business plan and make sure you know your stuff, make sure you have a passion for your product/industry and truly love what you do as the hours, commitment, discipline and relentless ‘never say no’ attitude can only be fueled by passion. My second boss in the landscape field gave me a piece of advice I’ll never forget and still practice today – “bite off more than you can chew and chew hard!”
You are also only as good as your people so hire smart and once you have the right people, treat them well. Let them grow, learn and have some ownership in what they do through empowerment. I could be a lot better at the whole empowerment thing when it comes to initial ideas for our projects but my business is about our style and brand of finished product so it’s hard to let someone else create those initial ideas but I excel in empowerment when it comes to all things post the initial layouts and ideas.
What’s next for you, and C.O.S Design?
We are all about building and consolidating our brand as one of the countries most preferred and respected design firms. We are completing more and more interstate projects through demand from interstate homeowners and this is an exciting opportunity for us. We have also recently completed some international design commissions in the U.S. We are also improving our presentation technology over the coming months and we continue to improve our systems and processes. Next year we will be engaging a admin/accounts/PA person to help the architects do what they do best. We also hope to continue to raise our brand and profile to open ourselves up to untouched markets.
