COLLEGE STATION – Of all the contagious things in the world, there is one people don’t want to avoid – flowers.
“The more you use flowers, the more you want to use them,” said Bill McKinley, director of the Benz School of Floral Design. “Research shows that there is a connection between happiness and flowers. So why wouldn’t you want to have some happiness on your kitchen table?”
McKinley plans to carry that message to new generation florists and consumers, and he has his artistic eye on a technological way to do that – via the Internet and social media.
Since last summer when he became director of the Benz school, the only floral design course in the nation affiliated with an institute of higher learning, McKinley has been pursuing ways to link the tactile nature of flower arranging with the mechanics of technology.
“The Benz school is retail in nature. We’re preparing students to go into the retail world to start or purchase a business,” McKinley said. “So we start with the basics — what are the elements, what are the principles, how do you put those together to make a floral design? And we cover the business basics — what the typical retail florist needs in order to succeed.
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