Wildflower Center Commissions

Repeat commissions that turn oversized creatures and illuminated plants into durable, public-facing worlds.

Status: Completed repeat commissions
Year: 2025–26
Place: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center · Austin, Texas
Commission / context: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Jake’s role: Design and delivery through ALT

Repeat commissionerCharacter, landscape, light, and fabrication across multiple activations

Day → nightDesigned to change with the garden and event cycle

Brand Tao read

Source → promise → proof

01 · Source / cultural truth

Recognizable botanical and creature forms within a living Texas landscape.

02 · Promise / audience experience

The familiar garden becomes playful, strange, and newly worth exploring.

03 · Proof / delivery evidence

Repeat commissions refined through durable day-to-night physical systems.

World-building idea

Fort Flutter and an illuminated flower installation created for Luminations—the Wildflower Center’s winter art show—demonstrate a repeat relationship and a practice moving between character, landscape, structure, lighting, and fabrication.

01Fort Flutter

A character that is also a place to gather.

Fort Flutter gives a playful creature architectural presence. Its large face and wing-like canopy make a memorable landmark while the structure, transport, installation, and public use demand the discipline of a durable environment.

02Luminations · winter art show

Specimens from a slightly stranger ecology.

A family of illuminated flower forms was created for Luminations, the Wildflower Center’s winter art show. The work balances recognizable botanical silhouettes with the surprise of oversized, glowing objects after dark.

03Repeat commissioner

Each generation improves the physical system.

Each generation refines color, surface, edge sealing, base stability, transport, and installation—turning repeat commissions into a stronger physical system.

Illuminated flower forms installed along a garden path — The installation is staged as a family of specimens within the landscape.

A red and green illuminated flower sculpture at night — Light turns the familiar botanical outline uncanny after dark.

A blue and pink illuminated botanical sculpture — Color, line, base, and edge detail carry the object at close range.

What this proves

Jake can earn repeat commissioners by turning memorable concepts into increasingly durable, serviceable physical systems.

Next projectImmersive experienceCritter Corral↗