"Asian approach gives clarity"
 

He lived and worked in Japan for over two and a half years. That was at the start of the Nineties,but Joan Stam (born 1968) is still benefiting from it. In the same way that he is still deriving a lot ofbenefit from the fact that he ran his own flower shop in Leiden for seven years. The fact that alongside English and German he also speaks Japanese brings him regular work in the land of the rising sun. But his ‘Asian approach’ to flowers is also very popular in the Netherlands, in Canada and in Southern Europe. That approach is characterised by working with clear lines and precise detailing. Whereby Joan merges East and West by combining it with a healthy commercial attitude which he has retained from his time as an independent florist.

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He started with secondary vocational education at Agricultural and Horticultural College. He then did the first and second year of the retailer diploma course. That gave him enough foundation to take on a big challenge at the age of 21 and go and teach at the Spark Flower Academy in Kyoto,

Japan. "I would recommend to everyone that they should do something like that, preferably when they are young. Such a foreign adventure is an enormous benefit to both your professional and personal development."

Back to earth

His time as a teacher in Japan shaped him and is still bearing fruit. Teaching means constantly going back to basics. And that is one of his main sources of inspiration, alongside reading magazines, visiting museums and particularly ‘keeping your eyes open’. Any plans that are too woolly or airyfairy are thus brought back to earth, by adopting the voice of a harsh taskmaster and asking “is it sellable?" He therefore considers his specialism to be the creative and innovative translation of ideas into usable floral designs, and passing this on to colleagues.

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