Ron Jon Surf Shop

Ron Jon is a brand name familiar to anyone who surfs — or who reads T-shirts. So when the Cocoa Beach, Fla.-based retailer of surf gear opened its first West Coast store (at The Block in Orange, Calif.), there was a reputation to uphold. The design (by DesignForum, Dayton, Ohio) lives up to the brand's reputation by combining contemporary store design with surfer attitude.

The 25,000-sq.-ft. store's entry is framed by a 40-foot monster wave, allowing shoppers to “shoot the curl” on the way in. The store's interior focal point is the classic surfer vehicle — a “woodie” (paneled station wagon) that doubles as a T-shirt rack. The store is long on visual excitement, from the life-sized statues in active poses to the color palette of vibrant blues, pinks, oranges and purples. Department signs are lettered in a style reminiscent of 1960s surf-art icon Ed Roth (creator of Rat Fink), and the Ron Jon logo occupies prime visual space just above the station wagon. It's enough to make you want to pop the Bomboras into the tape deck and slap on some zinc oxide. At the very least, it's a new wave in surf retailing.

Design: Design Forum, Dayton, Ohio — D. Lee Carpenter, chair and ceo

Ceilings: USG Interiors Inc., Chicago (acoustical); Sherwin Williams, St. Louis (paint)

Fixturing: Westco, New York City; MET Merchandising Concepts, Chicago; JPM Fixtures Inc., Bloomington, Minn.; Newood Display Fixture Mfg. Co., Eugene, Ore.; ABC Target, Freeport, N.Y.; Millrock, Stanford, Maine (custom millwork and fixtures)

Flooring/Ceramic Tiles: Imagine Tile, Jersey City, N.J.; Crossville Ceramic, Crossville, Tenn.; Interceramic, Garland, Texas; Floor Gres, Fiorano M. Italy. Wood Flooring: Buell Hardwood Flooring; Dallas. Carpet: Shaw Commercial, Dalton, Ga.; Designweave, Santa Fe Springs, Calif. Laminates: Formica Corp., Cincinnati

Lighting: City Design Group; Pasadena, Calif.

Signage: DVS Industries; Burlington, N.J.

Props/Decoratives: Global Entertainment; Burbank, Calif. (wave and themed elements)

Photography: Courtesy of Ron Jon Surf Shops, Cocoa Beach, Fla.