"Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition."
Freeman Thomas
"Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition."
Freeman Thomas
"Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition."
Freeman Thomas
"Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition."
Freeman Thomas
"Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition."
Freeman Thomas
Salt Life
Fun, kitsch and all things Salty.
The Salt Life brand is all in the name, centered on fun activities like ocean fishing, deep-sea scuba diving, spearfishing and the like. An already established staple of the east coast beach culture, Salt Life sought to make their presence known out west. In 2016 I developed the initial design for Salt Life's first west coast headquarters in San Clemente, Ca. From there the chain grew, with more retail locations popping up every year.
The largest and perhaps most exciting location is the Huntington Beach store pictured above. Strategically placed lighting and reflective materials create an immersive and engaging space, encouraging guests to feel like they're at a party underwater!
The large t-shirt table features real scuba tanks at the base. Many pieces throughout the store are characterized by fun details such as this.
Walk through of a trypical Salt Life location just after installation and in prep for merchandising.
KEY MATERIALS
Beetle-Kill Wood
White Rope
Netting
Seashell Concrete
Seaweed window
graphic
Nautical
Flags
Corrugate Roof
Fighting chair
window display
Wave window
graphic
"Floating" Boardshorts
Display
The entry-way rendered above was developed for mall retail locations, they typically feature large windows on either side with a double-wide door opening and branding overhead. Because these locations lack the character of the beloved small boutiques that Salt Life typically occupies, we had to get creative. The dark wood cladding mixed with beetle-kill, planked floors, and tin roofs transports guests to the grungy, crafty beach sheds we adore.
Using advanced 3-D modeling and rendering software I am able to create realistic representations of the design intent. Compare the rendering at right with the finished product pictured above.
These renderings show the layout of typical Salt Life fixtures and dressing rooms. To create a consistent story across all their locations we always clad the back wall in beetle-kill planking and paint the walls a shade of sea blue. We use large-scale sealife wall graphics to create an immersive feeling of being underwater.
These are examples of some lovely store-fronts of our boutique Salt Life locations, shown above are images from Key West, Florida and Charleston, South Carolina! These locations can be challenging, the buildings are old and the interiors have quirks that we have to workaround. But the results are beautifully unique spaces that really capture the fun and character of the Salt Life brand!
Notice the surfboard on saw-horses that nests under the scuba tank table, adding surface area and personality!
Salt Life is a brand that packs units; piles and piles of T-shirts, sweatshirts, and towels flood the store. Unique details are what frames the merchandise in an engaging way, and adds an element of discovery to the experience of store guests.
Using real boat cleats and rope we created a wall-mounted rack to hang hats off S-hooks!
