It’s that time again, the Melbourne Gift Fair is upon us and the excitement is literally palpable (or that may be my ulcer). Come and visit the new SunnyLIFE at the Melbourne Showgrounds (Stand E1810) from Saturday the 2nd to Wednesday the 6th of August. We will be showing our new ranges for the first time - so it’s the perfect opportunity to get a good look and feel. All your favourite SunnyLIFE people will be there - so make sure you stop by and say hello. Unfortunately this is a trade only event - sorry civilians!

See you there,

Joel.

I thought now would be a good time to share the SunnyLIFE story with you… I’m always interested in the origins of a brand – so hopefully some of you are interested in ours… Over a few posts, I’ll tell you about our humble origins.

It all started at a train station in Barcelona, Spain. I had headed there to meet my best friend (and the creator of the SunnyLIFE brand identity and this website design), Gina for 3 days at the height of summer. Instead of doing something cultural (Gaudi, Sagrada Familia – anyone?), we  chose to indulge in one of our favourite shared activities – a visit to the beach… It became apparent that many Catalans had the same idea as us and as we looked around at our fellow beach-goers, Gina asked “why are beach umbrellas so ugly?” As the day rolled on, I asked myself that question, not just about umbrellas but about all beach accessories.

Over the following days, as I continued to NYC & poolside in LA, the question continued to resonate and the seeds of SunnyLIFE were sown. As a keen-observer of human nature (aka people watcher) – I was struck by the realization that the sunshine is such a simple and effective unifier. Literally anyone can take pleasure from time spent in the sunshine – I believe commonality effects tolerance – and the sun is something that we all share.

I returned to Melbourne and found myself daydreaming about beaches and the way we spend time outdoors. Almost from the beginning, the word “sunny” had been on my mind. A simple word that has only positive connotations – my conceptualization centered around the mood and the word. A brand was conceived.

You may be wondering why we chose to launch our new range and website in the middle of winter. Good question… the simple answer relates to the retail calendar - which has evolved over the years outwards from Xmas. Long story short - Summer product goes into store in winter, and winter product goes in at the tail-end of summer. It’s a topsy-turvy world we inhabit.

From a product point-of-view, because all SunnyLIFE product is custom created by us, we are working on new ranges up to 12 months before they hit the stores. It means that we spend a lot of time pondering what beach towels people will be liking over a year down the track. The design team spends time pouring over trends, product styles, market knowledge and (occasionally) some whims. Then, with the help of our awesome production team, we start the development process - which involves sampling, product testing, packaging development & plenty of tweaking. Even the simplest of products have a multitude of details to consider - so given that we are developing literally hundreds of products, my beach time diminishes during this period!

As for the new website - this baby has been 6 months in the making… At SunnyLIFE, our desire is keep things simple and stylish - which is not always an easy task to execute. Our primary aim was to ensure our website accurately portrays and reflects the brand image, which includes the introduction of the beautiful SunnyLIFE girl. The imagery has been created to tell the story of a day in her life and how SunnyLIFE product serves the time spent outdoors. I’m really proud of how the images came out, thanks to our gorgeous model, Ellie, and our fab photographer, Susan. I hope you like the imagery as much as I do - but spare a thought for Ellie who managed to think sunny thoughts on a cold and blustery winter’s day in Sydney!

Welcome to the new SunnyLIFE website! Welcome to my new blog… I’m Joel, SunnyLIFE’s creative director. As you can imagine, much of my time is spent on beaches daydreaming about giant inflatable ducks and the like. I have decided to take time out of my busy beach-going/daydreaming schedule to offer this blog - ‘Joel Says’. Quite simply, I wanted to create a forum as part of our new website that would allow some interaction.

Over coming weeks & months, I’ll provide you with updates on what’s happening behind-the-scenes at Sunny-town, news about the brand, trend info & general ramblings that, until now, I haven’t had a forum for. Most importantly, from my perspective, I want feedback! Tell me how you spend a sunny day? What’s your favourite SunnyLIFE product? Things you’d like to see from us in the future? Send pictures of you on your favourite beach - don’t be shy, they’re probably already on Facebook!

Have a sunny day!

Joel.