Posted: 24/03/2013 at 19:25
Why the flaming? It seems a fair and reasonable question to me, irrelevant of the OP career choice. Also from looking at his website, I can't imagine that he would need to come on here and tout for work.
Before changing career some 20 odd years ago, I worked professionally as a contractor for several different well known and not so well known landscape designers, and sadly one theme was common amongst all of them, repetition of design. The one designer that has always inspired me though, is Diamuid Gavin. He is not afraid to think outside of the box, and I love his use of concrete, which is in itself a very underrated and under used product in landscape design.
Many people have absolutely no vision of what they want in respect of garden design and do need guidance, which is where the services of a designer should be engaged, but sadly more often than not, the designer does not listen to the clients needs. The majority of garden designers are also absolutely clueless about scale. Anything can be put down on paper, but taking it from the paper stage and into 3D reality is more often than not just a joke.
One other aspect about designers is that many are good at certain elements, but fall short on other elements. One may be good at hard landscaping schemes but will not be good at soft landscaping schemes, lighting etc. It is quite rare to find a designer that is good at all aspects. The sad thing about this is that the designer is always too blinkered to see/accept it.
Personally I wouldn't dream of paying someone to design a garden for me, but that is simply because I can do my own without issue, and find both design and construction easy. 
