Jack O'Neill

“We fundamentally believe in the power of nature to feed our soul.”

The legendary surf icon Jack O’Neill (1923-2017) and founder of a multi-million wetsuit company ‘O’Neill’ said in an interview: “Surfing for me was a very important part of my life. I’d work downtown in San Francisco and I’d get all screwed up, and I’d go out and I’d jump in the ocean and everything would be all right again. All I wanted to do was surf, and when I opened that shop in my garage, I thought I would have a few guys there to sell suits and have guys to surf with.”

Jack had a surf house at the beach in San Francisco where he could look out the window every morning to check out the surf, and the first thing he did to his house was rip out the stairs and put in a trampoline, he said it was the best thing he ever did! He opened the first ever surf shop in San Francisco in 1952 and later went on to invent the first ever neoprene wetsuit through experimentation with WWII diving vests.

Everyone would laugh at him in his wetsuit, they were quite big and blew up like balloons not like the slim fitting ones that you see today. Though, It wasn’t very long before people began to realise that the first in with a wetsuit was also the last out.... An entire industry is born.

“To Follow one man’s vision, I wanting to ride the elements”.
Jack O’Neill

David Carson

David Carson, a massively influential creative American designer and professional surfer rated no 9 in the world in the 1980’s. He began his design career designing experimental typography and breaking all layout rules. His no rule approach got some interesting attention overlaying text often referred to as “grunge typography”.

His unique and bold design approach got many critics, labelled him as a "horrific designer" in the 90’s and typography critics stated he was immature and destroying the origins and foundation of graphic design.

David’s unique design approach for the era lead him down the path of becoming the art director with some of the best surf and skateboard magazines at the time. The layouts would now be recognised as some of the most influential typography graphics, known as using “dirty type” and non-mainstream photographic techniques.

In the late 90’s David had landed most of the world’s largest multinational brands like Pepsi, Nike, Microsoft, Sony, Budweiser, the list goes on and on.

“You have to utilize who you are in your work. Nobody else can do that: nobody else can pull from your background, from your parents, your upbringing, your whole life experience.”
David Carson

Burts Bees

Burt Shavitz meet Roxanne Quimby hitchiking, she was an artist and he was a photojournalist they quickly “hit it off” and both of them formed "Burt’s Bees" in the early 1980's both leaving behind their busy work life to find freedom in the remote wilderness of Maine, USA.

Burt settled into his new life as the local “bee man” after finding a stray beehive and learning how to eke out a living selling honey. Quimby made candles with unused wax from Shavitz’s beehives, the source of his roadside honey stand.

Burt and Roxanne valued the simple life, and knew the importance and personal worth of staying connected to nature. Their lifestyle was low-impact, and socially and environmentally conscious.

The skincare products became famously branded with Burt's face on the packaging. In 2007 Burt’s Bees company was sold for $925 million.

Burt never lost sight of the importance of connecting with nature.
He converted this 300-square-foot turkey coop into a cozy cabin home, with no heat or electricity it was his favourite place to be and where he spent his last years of his life. After his passing, the cabin was moved from Maine the headquarters of Burt's Bees, so visitors can see just how freeing a downsized life can be.