feedback from a couple of designers who have misunderstood the brief

I have had two fairly similar bits of feedback see below:

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I do not possess Vectorworks or live near Canterbury so I will have to give it a miss this year.

Please read the reply below that I sent to someone earlier on who had these same concerns  and now agrees she may have got the wrong end of the stick I have re-ordered this so it’s easy to follow rather than reading from the bottom upwards – that always does me in!:

Hi Louise

Well, I don't feel I'm able to enter the competition this time. The Canterbury competition is, as you say , ideally suited to a designer who is local. 

The seaside garden is sponsored by Vectorworks, which I do not use - so am at an obvious disadvantage. Not only that, but  true seaside gardens are not situated on heavy clay so I would feel a bit of a fraud trying to design and plant up on this type of soil.

Hi    *********

I’m sorry you see this as all too difficult, perhaps you need to re-read the pack?

The Whitefriars challenge would ideally suit a local designer, but that doesn’t mean that someone who is not local, who has the best design will not win.  The other show gardens are in this part of the world, not far from Canterbury and we have had winners from all over the country in previous years.  Also previous years winners have never found it a problem to visit Kent (or Canterbury – where we held a meet the designers day at the Zone last year).

If you read again, the seaside garden can be produced in traditional methods or  Vectorworks, but it doesn’t have to be Vectorworks see below:

If you cannot provide such a drawing, our in house designers will produce one for you working from your plans.

If you require a copy of the Vectorworks software you can do this by downloading a 30 day trial version.

Visit http://www.vectorworks.net/trial/form.

So there's no disadvantage at all.

The seaside garden is only called that because the previous designer decided to make it with a seaside theme - it is not remaining as the seaside garden, the point is to change it and for the designers entering the competition to use their imagination and creativity to conjure up some thing different, with its own new and special theme.  As for the clay soil, there is a bit of this at the back of the garden, I understand, although I am not a garden designer myself, that it is helpful to point out soil types, so mistakes aren’t made when choosing plants that prefer certain types of soil.  I’m sure the clay soil aspect can be incorporated successfully in the design.

Maybe having read this in the morning light, (I note you emailed at nearly 11pm last night, so you may well have been tired!) and if you have another read of the brief, you may find yourself feeling a bit different now *******.

Thanks and kind regards

Louise

Sorry Louise - I sincerely hope I didn't come across as bring rude - my sincere apologies if I did!!

Thanks for taking the time write back - most appreciated and I think I got the wrong end of the stick...I'll take a look again and NOT read up on things late at night!!

 Hi Again *****

Hopefully that will make some sense ?

Thanks and regards

Louise
and the other designer also said this in reply:

To be honest I didn't read the pack just your opening email - I am glad that Nemetscheck will consider hand drafted drawings, I didn't expect them to as they are sponsoring with Vectorworks - my mistake. To be honest I have been looking forward to doing some competition work and maybe I jumped the gun thinking as the other person did, that I would be at a disadvantage before even getting started, as you are aware the design and fulfilling the brief can take some time and late nights. Thanks for your understanding and response.