Anyone can sell a good product, but to sell a piece of crap, now that takes real talent.” Is ‘Design’ and ‘Handwerk’ increasingly less valued?

There appears to be a growing misconception in mainstream America about just what exactly is ‘design,’ its value to the individual, and the culture at large. Big-box stores, mass media outlets, educational institutes and even the “design disciplines”– to name just a few entities – can share the blame for muddying the term. In many circles design is a commodity, produced by a recipe, cranked out, apparently, by anyone. In this line of thinking – propelled by mass-marketing forces – there is no such thing as ‘bad design’ …and very little ‘site-specific design.’ This ‘one size-fits-all, rip and read’ approach to design has produced another disturbing trend: an increasing de-valuation in ‘handwerk.’ And begs the question: just what does distinguish

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Michael Veracka Joins Farmingdale State College Faculty

Mr. George P. LaRosa , Officer-in-Charge at Farmingdale State College, welcomes Michael Veracka as an assistant professor in the Ornamental Horticulture department.

Michael Veracka, a Providence , RI resident, joins the Farmingdale faculty with a wide variety of experience in the field of horticulture. He has worked as an educator, landscape urban planner, designer and builder and business owner.

Mr. Veracka has been an adjunct professor at Harvard University ‘s Landscape Institute at Arnold Arboretum for over two years and at the Rhode Island School of Design for over eight years. At both universities, he developed and taught contemporary landscape design, horticulture and plant identification, construction methods, and building materials in design studios and technical classes. Professor Veracka also teaches …

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