You know when you drink a gallon of coffee and conjure up an entire catalog on a Saturday morning? That's what happened when I set out to make Summer of Spontaneity; which heralded the return of SWELL's beloved print catalog.

In order to tell a full product story, I broke the catalog into three parts: a summer morning, a beach-filled summer day, and a hot summer night. This allowed us to tell important product stories like activewear, swim, and festival. To add dimension to the story, I included non-transactional elements to the catalog like smoothie recipes, tips for beginner surfers, and our models and muses’ summer playlists. 

While not able to be on location in Australia, I detailed every shot for the photographer. I also wrote all the copy, designed and directed the studio shoot (utilizing plants, exposed lighting rigs, and sweeps); and just had a blast in general.

One of the bigger fumbles in my career is not saving a digital copy of this catalog. What I can offer you is a detailed look at my very detailed process. The slides here do show the actual studio imagery, as well as placeholder inspiration images (+ detailed shot descriptions for the photographer), and all final copy.

File under: creative direction, copywriting

Client: Surfstitch (formerly Swell)