Inside Our International Collaboration with gomi
A company offsite is a massive undertaking for any creative agency, but it also provides a unique opportunity to showcase what we do best: high-level design, creative storytelling, and global collaboration. As we began developing the merchandise collection for our Whitestone Sol offsite to Cabo, the core objective was to highlight Whitestone’s international reach and our ability to activate partnerships across the globe.
With team members traveling from different parts of the world, we wanted the collection to feel distinctly international. That vision led us directly back to Brighton, UK, to collaborate once again with our upcycling partners at gomi.
The Strategy Behind the Sol Collection
This power bank from the Sol Collection features a completely unique, hand-marbled pattern, proving that sustainable corporate gifting never has to compromise on design.
Every piece in a custom merchandise kit serves a specific purpose. While the broader collection was designed to celebrate our international capabilities and creative design work, we also wanted to dedicate attention to a localized environmental effort. Traveling internationally to a beautiful coastal destination like Cabo inspired a personal goal for this particular product: a desire to champion the message of leaving the beaches better than we found them.
Because gomi specializes in transforming non-recyclable waste plastic into premium tech products, they were the perfect partner to help execute this specific vision. The project allowed us to connect our US-based design concepts with our UK-based team and a British manufacturing partner, creating a truly global production pipeline.
From Brighton Beach to the Studio Line
To kick off the creation of these custom power banks, our London team, including Aye and Nikki, who brought their sons along for the experience, met up with the gomi crew directly on Brighton Beach. Together, the group spent the afternoon clearing plastic waste from the shoreline. Involving the team's kids added a great educational layer to the day, turning a corporate design project into a hands-on community activity.
After completing the cleanup, the team headed over to gomi’s Brighton studio to see the manufacturing process firsthand. The plastic collected from the beach was brought right into the workspace to be sorted, cleaned, and prepared for processing alongside gomi's existing stream of post-consumer plastic waste.
The minds (and future generation of designers!) behind the collaboration. The Whitestone and Gomi crews meeting at the Brighton workshop.
Making a direct impact. Aye, Nikki, and their sons spent the afternoon clearing flexible plastic and shoreline waste from Brighton Beach.
Bridging Creative Concept and Raw Material
Our design team mapped out a custom colorway inspired by the sun-drenched landscapes of Cabo. This palette bridges the gap between digital brand identity and the raw, recycled materials used to create the final product.
While the physical cleanup was taking place in the UK, our design team was busy mapping out the visual identity of the Whitestone Sol offsite. We developed a custom colorway inspired by the warm, sun-drenched landscapes of Cabo, utilizing a vibrant mix of deep pinks, warm yellows, soft blues, and rich earth tones.
The specialized craft in action. After heating and kneading the post-consumer plastic flakes together, a craftsman slices the malleable mixture, giving us a first look at the unique, marbled pattern that will form the power bank shells.
Matching digital Pantone swatches to raw, recycled plastic flakes is a highly specialized craft. The gomi team meticulously mixed the colored plastic to align with our brand direction. The production process involves heating the plastic into a malleable state, kneading the colors together into a marbled swirl, and pressing the mixture into custom molds. Because the colors blend organically during the melting process, no two tech shells are identical. Every single power bank features a completely unique, one-of-a-kind marbled pattern.
Hand-Assembly and Custom Finishing
Fresh out of the press. A freshly molded external power bank shell is carefully removed from the custom compression machinery, showing off the perfectly cured, vibrant marbling.
Once the vibrant external shells were pressed and cured, the gomi team hand-assembled the internal components of each 10,000 mAh unit. In line with gomi’s commitment to circular tech, the power banks are powered by repurposed e-bike batteries that would otherwise go to waste, and the final units are designed to be fully repairable.
The final stage of production took place back on the workshop floor, where each power bank was placed into the laser engraver. The machine precision-etched our custom Whitestone SOL offsite logo into the sleek aluminum casing on the back of the device, creating a sharp contrast against the colorful, tactile front shell.
The finished power banks were then packed and shipped across the Atlantic, ready to be handed out to our team. This product stands out as a highlight of the collection—not just as a high-performance piece of event tech, but as a tangible representation of what can happen when our global offices, local communities, and international partners align on a creative concept.
Hand-assembled for high quality. Each power bank is meticulously finished on the workshop floor, ensuring the recycled plastic shells fit perfectly with the internal components and repurposed e-bike batteries.
Sleek aluminum meets circular tech. The final touch features a precision-etched backplate sporting our custom Whitestone SOL logo, serving as a reminder of what happens when international partners align on sustainable design.
Bring the Whitestone Sol Framework to Your Next Event
The power banks were just one component of a larger, highly curated international design campaign. If you want to see how we brought this entire collection to life from moodboard to material, explore our full project overview below.