Blue Ocean Designs by Walt has launched today at https://blueoceandesignsbywalt.com/
Most marine aquarists may be familiar with the Walt Smith name, most likely associating it with Walt Smith International (WSI) in Fiji, or more recently the ADE Project. Smith, who combines his passion for marine environments with his entrepreneurial ideas and creative pursuits, is even responsible for the Bula Buddies series of children’s books, created to educate children about the perils that threaten coral reefs.
Smith originally moved to Fiji from Tonga in 1995 at a Fijjian governmental invitation to grow the aquarium trade there. For decades, Smith’s main business has been WSI, widely recognized both as an exporter of wild fish and corals, but also for being a leader in the production of in-situ maricultured corals in Fiji.
However, over 5 years ago, at the tail end of 2017, Fiji’s government unilaterally banned coral exports, leaving WSI with nothing more than fish and invertebrates to send to customers around the globe. While the ban was originally “lifted” in less than 70 days, what followed has been a multi-year refusal to issue CITES permits, and as of this moment, coral exports have yet to materialize.
WSI has continued to export fish from Fiji, including many popular specialties and endemics, but without mariculture and coral exports, WSI faces ongoing challenges and is operating at a much smaller scale than historically.
Keeping Busy – Blue Ocean Designs is Born
Smith and his family could have just closed up shop and retired in the face of a coral export ban, but instead, they’ve been fighting for years to reestablish the coral trade in Fiji. Still, Walt is not one to sit idle.
Drawing from his youth, and his experience with design as a trained architect, the multi-talented Smith dug into over a terabyte’s worth of underwater photography that he, his wife Deb Smith, and other WSI staff, had captured over their many years spent diving reefs. Inspiration, combined with modern digital artistic techniques, allowed Smith to create a deep array of aquatic-inspired artwork based on the photography archive.
Smith’s designs are not simply realistic renderings of sea life, but rather stylized interpretations, blending the colors, shapes, and patterns of the underwater world into a truly vibrant and unique form. I’d argue that Walt’s Blue Ocean Designs fall somewhere between Guy Harvey’s realistic wildlife art and the abstractions of Terry Dixon’s Funk Art.
“All the products are 100% Fiji-made,” said Smith. “They’re designed in Fiji and fabricated in Fiji.” Smith has teamed up with a company just 20 minutes away from WSI, which owns both a sublimation printing business and a garment factory that produces shirts, sarongs, and pillow cushion covers. For wall art, Smith has partnered with a local sign printer that is able to reproduce the digital artwork onto high-quality canvas.
Smith and the team also note that “A portion of the profits made on these unique products will directly support coral reef restoration and scientific research [via the ADE Project] enabling a proactive approach to compete with the many issues that threaten our reefs today.”
May 19th, 2023, sees the official launch of the Blue Ocean Designs by Walt website; Walt’s artwork can be purchased in a variety of forms, including Wall Art, Pillow Covers, Sarongs, and “Hawaiian Style” Bula Shirts.
You can now experience Smith’s designs and shop the entire line of apparel and home decor at https://blueoceandesignsbywalt.com/
