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“There were no rules then. We were just doing what we felt we wanted to do.
We were a company built to fund our surf trips. It was as simple as that.” - Ross Thomson, Founder of Saltrock
ROCK of an idea
It’s 1988, two South African surf brothers (Ross and Angus) have dropped from London onto the shores of Penzance, with a mission for adventure, discovery, and hopefully some surfing to boot!
“
We hadn’t heard anything about Cornwall, surfing wasn’t that big at the time. Our plans were to use the UK as a stop-gap before heading to Europe.”
So, on arriving in Penzance and finding a B&B, they set out to fund their surf trips by daffodil picking, dishwashing and a bit of night club bouncing, soon realising this wasn’t going to cut it. Back home Ross, the designer, had created artwork for surf brands in a booming South African market and saw the potential in the UK, which was still growing. Brands like Ocean Pacific (Op), Mambo, and Billabong had reached its shores but their designs were fluorescent or pastel blocks of multi-colours, the current trend in surf tee design. The Thomson brothers wanted to produce something that surfers wanted to wear using Ross’s unique design style of blended dots, fine lines and wood carving effects - artwork like no one else.
garage brand to surf brand
Like every journey has its ups and downs, the next challenge the brothers faced was from the local printers, “There is no way you can print that design.” Determined to make their Tees, Ross and Angus learned how to screen print (thanks to Penzance’s library) and salvaged everything they needed to build their own screen-printing press.
“We raided skips, collected wood, salvaged a safe and developed our own screens, turning the safe into a curing unit. With a timer, silver foil lining, a thermostat from a cooker, we put the Tees in - closed the door – and set the timer for 3 minutes; it worked perfectly.”
“We were there with our three coloured prints verses their multicoloured prints. We could never compete with the international brands, so we took the view to do the artwork that I wanted to do. Tribal, One World, Little Creatures are all simplistic in colour but focus on telling a story through the detailed artwork, which we thought was more special.”
“There were no rules then. We were just doing what we felt we wanted to do.
We were a company built to fund our surf trips. It was as simple as that.” - Ross Thomson, Founder of Saltrock
ROCK of an idea
It’s 1988, two South African surf brothers (Ross and Angus) have dropped from London onto the shores of Penzance, with a mission for adventure, discovery, and hopefully some surfing to boot!
“
We hadn’t heard anything about Cornwall, surfing wasn’t that big at the time. Our plans were to use the UK as a stop-gap before heading to Europe.”
So, on arriving in Penzance and finding a B&B, they set out to fund their surf trips by daffodil picking, dishwashing and a bit of night club bouncing, soon realising this wasn’t going to cut it. Back home Ross, the designer, had created artwork for surf brands in a booming South African market and saw the potential in the UK, which was still growing. Brands like Ocean Pacific (Op), Mambo and Billabong had reached its shores but their designs were fluorescent or pastel blocks of multi-colours, the current trend in surf tee design. The Thomson brothers wanted to produce something that surfers wanted to wear using Ross’s unique design style of blended dots, fine lines and wood carving effects - artwork like no one else.
With Ross designing the Tees and Angus selling them this would fund their surf trips during winter and was to become their first step on the journey of Saltrock.
garage brand to surf brand
Like every journey has its ups and downs, the next challenge the brothers faced was from the local printers, “There is no way you can print that design.” Determined to make their Tees, Ross and Angus learned how to screen print (thanks to Penzance’s library) and salvaged everything they needed to build their own screen-printing press.
“We raided skips, collected wood, salvaged a safe and developed our own screens, turning the safe into a curing unit. With a timer, silver foil lining, a thermostat from a cooker, we put the Tees in - closed the door – and set the timer for 3 minutes; it worked perfectly.”
“We were there with our three coloured prints verses their multicoloured prints. We could never compete with the international brands, so we took the view to do the artwork that I wanted to do. Tribal, One World, Little Creatures are all simplistic in colour but focus on telling a story through the detailed artwork, which we thought was more special.”