Eastmantribe offers product under three brand types. They are Eastman Cross +, SouthWest Zen and Skeletal Arrow. Here are some notes about them and our design approach for each.
Our logos and brand stamps are simple, carefully designed approach to communicating our brand and belief in minimalism – in design, product, and footprint. Reminiscence of the days when groups of people formed together for a common purpose such as survival, or perhaps as family. Tribes often left their sign to mark their space or territory. Ours are a Skeletal Arrow and a Cross Mark. Skeletal Arrow to indicate our belief in starting things from the core, from the spine if you will. The arrow tip indicates a directional sense…moving forward. The Cross Mark is a reference to humans having a presence.
The roots of Eastman Cross stem from our founder john eastman who started out 20 years ago as an abstract painter before learning how to design and build furniture about 10 years ago. The sketches and paintings of non-religious crosses seem to work their way into multiple articles of work over the years, tweaked in line imperfection and color. We feature these hand painted on some wood benches and sitting stools, textile products as t-shirts, denim and cotton Army Jackets, table runners, as well as steel tin planters, ceramic coffee mugs and small sculptural vessels. When someone comments “that looks like an eastman cross” it wells us up with emotion and gratefulness.
Southwest Zen reflects our love of open space, sunny skies, amazing air, and barren desert space. We love old pickup trucks, driving through desert on a sunny days, looking for great finds and influences. Our products from these influences are grouped around a lighter grade of wood, a bright color palette. Distressed and naturally worn from the environment, we offer beautiful leather bags, painted metal tins and cactus, and rich colored blankets, plus a host of other “finds” that hopefully connect with our followers and the SW idea. Life in the Southwest is different, it’s not for everyone, but for those who get it, we think we may have tapped into it in our product offerings.
Skeletal Arrow is the oldest and flagship of the product designs and builds, and engulfs most of the furniture products to date. An idea or influence can come from anywhere for eastmantribe, but it always moves forward to development from a core or barebone approach, thus the reference to a skeletal and arrow.
As a brand, we are rooted in minimalism, where the product conception, design, build and materials are always simple and basic with minimal materials in use. The adherence to minimalism extends into the openness and surface of the product, whereas a wood bench or long library table surface serves as a canvas or platform for small focus object such as a painted stripe or arrow, both playing off of each other, both equally important. We further try to move this forward by placing our product in open spaces to exist within a space, to not be a shiny object in the room. Our smallest piece of functional sculpture or woodwork, is as important as our largest….it is just how we see our platform in life as a brand.
Our approach to creating
For each artist, there exists an initial connection to core materials that starts the creative process, ultimately leading to an idea, design or plan for a piece of art, furniture, or object. That connection can be the touch of a stone, a felled tree, another tangible surface we’ve been exposed to, or even a musical lyric. We develop that connection until it’s complete, realizing our end product. We are minimalists at heart.
Welcome to eastmantribe. We hope you enjoy our work.