Genesis 3 Design Group

The Genesis 3 Design Group is an international company that specializes in the advanced-level instruction for those involved in the design, engineering and construction of swimming pools, spas, waterfeatures and outdoor-living areas.

Co-founded by noted pool and waterscape designers David Tisherman, Skip Phillips and Brian Van Bower, the organization offers a series of themed and progressive educational schools featuring international experts in various fields.

Genesis 3 programs include professional training, specialized international educational tours, recommended reading and other practical applications.

History

Since its inception in 1998, Genesis 3 has sought to bring design, engineering and construction excellence to the watershaping industry by offering seminars, short courses and schools that reflect the education, experience and applied skills of top-flight instructors working with first-class ambition.

From the start, the aim has been to drive the watershaping trades to new levels of acceptance and credibility and to advance the regard with which prospects and clients hold watershapers. Progress has been made, and we've reached a point where the next natural step is to formalize the Genesis 3 approach and philosophy into a series of core classes, conducted under the auspices of the Society of Watershape Designers (SWD), on truly advanced approaches to watershape design and construction. Each of these courses will be marked by higher ambitions, higher expectations and the following mission:

"The Society of Watershape Designers' Curriculum will elevate the watershaping industry through education in practical skills associated with design excellence, all according to standards observed in the world beyond watershaping. In so doing, the Curriculum will create an alliance of like-minded professionals who will steadily raise consumer expectations beyond established norms and who will create a demand for watershapes that are truly works of the designer's art."

Society of Watershape Designers

The Society of Watershape Designers' Curriculum

In any educational process worth pursuing, success and real learning takes time, discipline and a structured curriculum - along with instructors who truly practice what they teach.

Through its programs, Genesis 3 has always worked toward higher standards for the watershaping trades and greater expectations among clients and colleagues. From the start, these programs have offered cutting-edge educational opportunities and fostered an environment in which like-minded professionals have advanced their knowledge and formed a community based upon the pursuit of watershaping excellence.

The crown jewel of the Genesis 3 approach is the new curriculum that will form the core programs for the Society of Watershape Designers and its members. These 20-hour, fully accredited classes, which will start by covering color theory, the principles of design, advanced two-dimensional communication, the vocabulary of design history and the principles of proper pool and watershape construction, are just the beginning of a growing cluster of programs that will intentionally make a difference.

In each of the design courses and in the upcoming Pool & Watershape Construction School, instructors will capture the essence of their educations and careers in the graphic and practical arts - and give you the opportunity to benefit from their established, recognized and plainly evident expertise at a level of instruction usually unavailable outside a university classroom.

Elements of Construction

In parallel with education in the visual arts and in keeping with the general mission of advancing education on a global level, we now offer the new Elements of Construction. The program is designed to bring participants up to speed with the latest principles in plan review, excavation, layout, soil and drainage, steel placement, plumbing, utilities, gunite, tile and coping, decks and drainage, remote controls, automation, plaster and start-ups. Instructors include recognized designers, engineers and builders.

Elements of Design

Design is a specific educational discipline that is taught and learned - contrary to opinions forwarded by those who call themselves designers without the credentials to back it up. This course introduces participants to the principles of line, texture, shape, balance, proportion, scale, spatial relationships, color interaction and more and will begin developing participants' perceptual skills and creative awareness in ways that ultimately shape a true designer.

Design Communication for Measured Perspective

The path to success in watershape design has to do with creating visual representations that let clients see and fully understand the potential harbored in their projects. This advanced course in perspective drawing and rendered elevations cultivates those specific communications skills, developing participants' competency with two-point perspective while focusing on scale, proportion, structured layouts, grid systems, tone, shadow and more.

The History of Water in Architecture

When you speak with prospects and clients, does your level of knowledge of art and architectural history position you to communicate with them in designing a watershape that meets expectations? Can you make your watershapes harmonize with styles found in their homes and the artworks they love? To stimulate that conversational and practical ability, this course surveys architectural history, ancient to modern, with a particular focus on water in built environments.

Color Theory and Design Application

What happens visually when a green grass runs up against a border of red brick as opposed to one of gray gravel? What surrounding colors make a watershape recede or take center stage? This course offers a detailed exploration of color perception that starts with the color wheel and carries through to individual experimentation and practical applications related to art, architecture and the dynamics of colors found around water.

Instructor: Judith Corona, a teacher and visual artist whose work has been exhibited in U.S. and European galleries and who is also a fellow of the Whitney Museum of American Art and has her MFA and teaches at UCLA. She has received instructor of the year award several times.

Understanding and Designing Fountains and Waterfeatures

Fountain design has long stood at the leading edge of the watershaping arts. Success involves an understanding of hydraulics, sound; lighting and control systems that take common head pressure and turn it into something magical. This program offers an intensive examination of the principles and technologies involved in making water flow in precisely controlled patterns to achieve defined and spectacularly illuminated visual effects.

Creating Digital Presentations

In today's "wired" world it's not enough to have just a photo album of your work. This course will provide participants with all of the digital photography and computer graphics skills necessary to produce sophisticated presentations of their work in a movie format. This is a hands-on course in which each student will work at his own computer station, and includes intensive training the use of Adobe PhotoShop Elements and Adobe Premier Elements and the manipulation of digital images to create dynamic visuals. Intermediate to advanced computer knowledge is required for this class. Students are encouraged to bring in images of their projects, which will be used to create an "electronic business card," a disk of their work that can be presented to potential clients.

Advanced Fluid Engineering

The success of every watershape requires consideration of basic physics and the laws of nature: volume, mass, gravity, velocity, pressure, friction, power, energy, thermodynamics, etc. At the collegiate level, universities teach these engineering fundamentals throughout several core classes. This Genesis 3 advanced course in fluid engineering will extrapolate the key fluid static and dynamic principles that apply to watershape engineering. Students will learn how to properly size plumbing and equipment, calculate TDH, operating costs, size chemical systems and other items. The sections on gravity-based systems will help designers understand open channel flows, water-in-transit, weirs, runnels, lazy rivers, venting, and more.

Students will learn how to get all of this critical information from their desk into the field where the details are really needed. Single-line schematic diagrams will be used to determine everything from line sizes, velocities and flow rates to the specific location of a critical check valve. Students will also receive a CD that contains custom watershape-specific software for use in determining line sizes, surge basin dimensions and other helpful tools. Resources also include many details that could be referenced in future construction. An exam will test the student’s engineering fundamentals and a graded project will introduce everyone to the development of a single-line schematic diagram and equipment schedules for a unique water-in-transit design project.

Designing and Creating Natural Looking Ponds and Water Features

The most in depth and practical course of "Living" water feature design and construction ever offered to professionals anywhere. Learn to evaluate sites, maximize natural and planned elements and properly incorporate water features into a setting. "Living" water features defined; their ecology, how to establish and manage the water clarity, quality and aquatic life. Review the various construction materials and methods available, and the subsequent decision process to select the most appropriate. Determine appropriate mechanical, biological, bio-mechanical filtration, sterilization and circulation methods and equipment choices. Study the art and physics of rock selection, acquisition and their authentic placement within a landscape or water feature.

3-Dimensional Computer Drawing (3 part course)

“How to properly present drawings and plans to a client, for maximum results, utilizing computer aided graphics and design (CAD), which will enhance client presentations.” Part I With this initial 20 hour class students will be able to prepare their own pool designs within a user friendly, 3-D computer environment and then generate multiple views of the finished design. These accurately proportioned computer models will allow the student to explore form, space, light, texture and color in a familiar pencil and paper framework. To achieve this objective, students will quickly learn how to use Google SketchUp, an easy to use 3-D software package that is available free from Google. Students will be able to quickly design three dimensional models of pools, spas, decks, fountains, pergolas and outdoor kitchens with a high level of detail. Upon completion of the class, a complete 3-D model of a hypothetical poolscape will be prepared without color for the use in the advanced presentation course (Part II). No computer drawing experience is needed to master this software quickly. Students must bring their own laptop computers with the software preloaded (no cost to the student). Instructions will be provided upon registration. All other materials will be supplied.

Part II This class will be taught in tandem by David Tisherman and Milton Dorsey. Emphasis on understanding light to create 3-dimensional images is tantamount to understanding visual depth---the basis of proper visual presentations. The student will then be introduced to the tools of the trade: Design Markers, which will be used to create depth on 3 dimensional drawings created and formulated in Part I. Unlike most CAD pool drawing programs, which almost always exhibit a flatness, lacking depth, and somewhat of a cartoon effect, the marker technique (prisma-color, chalk, etc.,), which then can be added to the 3-D CAD drawings, create a hand drawn effect----a much more professional and artistic approach to client presentations. All materials will be supplied.

Part III This class is taught by David Tisherman and will introduce the student to professional client presentation techniques incorporating both CAD and hand drawn site plan presentations. Emphasis will be placed on material presentations in 2-dimensional drawings; stone, pavers, water, brick and supporting plant material will be illustrated. Proper scale, line weight and proportion will be discussed and demonstrated. All materials will be supplied.

Those who successfully complete the Society of Watershapes Designers' Curriculum become "Certified Watershape Designers." The Society of Watershapes Designers' Curriculum is the only accredited educational program in the swimming pool industry that offers design, construction and advanced education, from the leaders & innovators of their field.