Sculpture by the Sea Merchandise

I was given the responsibility for the 2024 merchandise release from design to delivery, from marketing to sales.

Market research, product research &design, order & delivery, retail store design & building, retail management, sales, marketing & advertising, shopify & online sales management.

The 2023 ‘dog on a surfboard’ graphic by Geoff Harvey

This is Penny Lane, a mixed breed rescue dog that belongs to our exhibition producer.

The Brief

The Graphic

Sculpture by the Sea (SxS) had been selling a limited range of merchandise for several years but aimed to expand its collection and create a more engaging ‘gift shop’ experience for the 2024 Bondi exhibition.

The goal was twofold: strengthen the SxS brand by aligning with major art institutions like the MCA, AGNSW, and Mona—who have extensive merchandise offerings—while also generating revenue to support future exhibitions as a not-for-profit organisation.

Each year, SxS commissions artist Geoff Harvey to create a new ‘dog on a surfboard’ design for its merchandise. Previous collections included graphic T-shirts, caps, calendars, and books, which were sold from small information kiosks that didn’t effectively showcase the range. With a plan to expand the collection, a new dedicated retail space was needed.

With just nine weeks before opening day, the challenge was to develop and execute this new project under a tight deadline.

The graphic is always inspired by a real life dog from the SxS team. We send Geoff a picture and he creates the hand drawn design.

This is Nala, a cavoodle that belongs to a friend of the team and often visits the office.

I was able to collaborate on the design, adjusting the colour and composition of the graphic and adding some details to the illustration to make the dog more animated.

2. The Research

Researching other art institutions like the MCA, AGNSW and Mona I looked at what they offer in their merchandise collection and their prices to help inform our decision. Furthermore, understanding our market audience and their interests- Bondi locals, young families, art enthusiasts and Sydney tourists.

Considering our brand and market research we decided to lean into Australian culture and laid back character with beach, sun, and dogs as the focus for the designs. Making sure to cater for kids and travellers, we primarily wanted to focus on introducing smaller and durable items.

Working with the SxS graphic designer and merchandisers, we created a range of possible designs that I presented to the team.

3. The Products

4. The Retail Store

Coordinating with the Site management team, we organised to rent two kiosks from Royal Wolf that would be delivered to the site 4 days before opening day. Working from the websites floorplans I designed a shop fit out plan that will display and store our new merchandise as well as safely house retail staff and customers.

This part of the project had the most amount of challenges and involved a lot of problem solving as I tried to complete this in time.

After making a few adjustments the feedback was great from staff and customers.

5 stars

Merchandise is just a small part of Sculpture by the Sea’s marketing plan. Strategically integrating merchandise advertising into other marketing posts , via visuals and copy, increased overall mentions and improved awareness while still maintaining focus on the exhibitions’ priorities.

For example, giving artists merchandise to wear for interviews and including a call to action to visit the merchandise kiosks in the caption of social media posts.