GRAPHIC DESIGN

• Hot Sushi Surf Shack: Logo design, Branding, Merchandising
• Designing for The Soda Shop, Savannah GA

From the moment Yamada Atsushi walked into the Soda Shop, he could barely contain his bubbling excitement and personality. Working with this surf god was more fun than work, it was one of the highlights in my career. Yamanda goes by Hot Sushi, or just Sushi for short. His main goal was to re-brand his surf shop, Hot Sushi’s Surf Shack, and had more than a few ideas on how to do it. By the end of the project we had produced an array of merchandise fit for a total Grom — don’t worry, we will get to that later.

I started at his suggestion, with the shaka hand gesture. This Hawaiian hand gesture has two meanings. Originally it means to hang loose or be chill and laid back. I would equate it to a thumbs up sign, or rock on gesture, used to give approval or praise. It can also be used as a greeting or good-bye symbol.

To make a shaka:
1. make a fist (not a tight fist)
2. extend both your pinky and your thumb
3. lightly shake your hand (too fast makes you look like a tourist, and too slow makes you look stupid)

We started working here, where his last team had left off. I planned to streamline this design, and needless to say, make it look less cheesy.

I started by exploring the shaka sign. He was positive that he wanted to keep that as an element. I was inspired by old postcards, beach vistas and vintage Hawaiian packaging. I also wanted the designs to be relevant to Tybee Island, where the shop is located, so I pulled images of the beach there.

From there I started playing with the images I had collected. I started rasterizing and converting them to bitmap images, clipping and cropping, color adjusting, and playing with different fonts until I came up with these different designs.

Sushi came in for a review. He liked what I had done, but didn’t feel that it fit his style well enough. I went back to the drawing board, as well as venturing out to his shack on Tybee Island. Hot Suhi’s Shack is genuinely a shack. Nestled in between a souvenir shop and an eccentric local restaurant, the hut barely makes up a 50 sq. ft. footprint, but that in no way diminishes its appearance. The shack explodes with rich tropical textures and bright primary colors.

I should have expected these characteristics from his place of business. Sushi is such a delightful person. Always shouting “Happy Tuesday!” at the passerby, and reminding them to stay hydrated.

I had missed the mark by going with the soft colors of vintage. I needed to rework the designs and add the colorful personality Sushi was so famous for.

I quite literally brought the shop into the designs. First, I created a clipping mask of the shack and added some text. This logo would work for some things, but because of its multicolored background it was challenging to change mediums. I would have to simplify the design for screen printing and other merchandising processes.

So from here I took the hand, rasterized the image and created a bitmap. This pattern would allow me to work with the hand, and give me the ability to screen print in a single color. From here the possibilities were endless.

We first gave him a large vinyl banner with his new logo, then moved on to merchandise for his shop. We printed stickers of various sizes, colors and assortments, then moved on to T-shirts and tank tops. We even started printing trucker hats. All of the merchandise was sold at the shack, so we printed him some paper bags for customers to keep their goodies in as well.

 

At about this time, he introduced me to what a Grom is. A Grom or Grommet isn’t necessarily a beginner surfer but a young surfer, usually under the age of 15. Most of the time people that are called Groms are young-ins who rip (which means good). Sushi wanted shop merchandise for some Groms he was training. I worked on some different logos, shirts and stickers for this concept.

Hot Sushi still rides the waves on Tybee Island. He offers lessons to anyone willing to wade out into the open water. If you are ever in the area, stop by his radical little shack and wave him the shaka sign from me!