Beach, Please

✱ Illustrated Beach Towels Collection

Some summer objects are purely practical. Others arrive with a personality. Redy.’s Illustrated Beach Towels belong firmly to the second category: a collection of four bold, playful and sun-hungry designs created in collaboration with Greek illustrator Chrysiida Rouni. Designed for the beach, the pool, the island trip, the spontaneous weekend escape or the very serious art of doing absolutely nothing under the sun, the series turns a familiar summer essential into a portable piece of illustration.

The collection includes four designs: Lickaholic, Drip Me Baby, Born Lazy and Eggstasy. Each towel has its own mood, its own kind of humour and its own way of looking at summer. Together, they form a compact but highly expressive collection that reflects Redy.’s wider approach to product design: everyday objects do not have to be neutral. They can be graphic, emotional, slightly provocative, funny, colourful and full of character.

A beach towel can be more than something you throw into a bag. It can say something before you even unfold it.

The creative concept behind the series was built around the idea of the beach as a stage for small summer personas. Some people arrive ready to flirt, some arrive ready to melt, some arrive ready to nap, and some treat every snack, splash and sunbeam as a small event. Instead of designing towels around abstract patterns or predictable seaside motifs, Redy. and Chrysiida Rouni approached the format as a vertical canvas for attitude. The names themselves already set the tone. Lickaholic feels cheeky and sweet, with an ice-cream fantasy that brings together flirty hands, melting cones and love-struck stares. Drip Me Baby turns heat, water and exaggeration into a visual punchline. Born Lazy celebrates the noble summer skill of slowing down completely. Eggstasy brings breakfast energy into beach culture, mixing sunny-side-up absurdity with the visual chaos of rackets, rays and carefree movement.

Chrysiida Rouni's illustration style gives the collection its distinctive voice. The drawings are expressive, direct and unapologetically playful, using character, gesture and colour to create images that feel instantly readable from a distance but still rewarding up close. This matters especially in the context of a beach towel. Unlike a poster on a wall, a towel lives in motion. It is folded, packed, carried, laid out on sand, thrown over a shoulder, photographed, shared, dried in the sun and used again.

The illustration has to work both as a graphic statement and as an object in real life. The result is a collection that keeps its visual strength whether it is placed flat on the beach, hanging from a balcony or wrapped around someone after a swim.

The design approach also embraces the proportions of the towel itself. At 70 × 140 cm, each piece offers enough surface for the artwork to breathe while remaining easy to carry and use. The long vertical format allows the illustrations to behave almost like posters for summer living, transforming the towel into a soft printed canvas. This poster-like quality is central to the project. Redy. often works across formats, bringing illustration into posters, cards, stationery and accessories, and this collection continues that direction by moving graphic storytelling into a functional textile object. It is not just merchandise. It is an illustrated edition made for everyday use.

Material choice plays an important role in balancing image and function. Made from 45% cotton and 55% polyester, the towels combine softness, practicality and print clarity. The cotton element brings the familiar comfort expected from a towel, while the polyester content supports a vivid printed surface suitable for bold illustration and colour. This hybrid material direction fits the needs of a contemporary summer accessory: it has to look good, feel good and survive real use, from beach bags and sunbeds to salty afternoons and repeated washes. The collection was designed in Greece, reinforcing Redy.’s commitment to local creative direction and to products that carry a distinct contemporary Greek design identity without relying on clichés.

They are useful, but not quiet. They are designed, but not over-serious.

As a project, the Illustrated Beach Towels sit naturally within Redy.’s universe. They are useful, but not quiet. They are designed, but not over-serious. They bring together illustration, humour and product design in a way that feels accessible and collectible at the same time. The four designs invite people to choose not only a colour or an image, but a summer alter ego. Are you the one chasing ice cream, dripping with drama, refusing to move, or turning a fried egg into a beach icon? The answer changes the way the product is read, and that is exactly what makes the collection memorable.

For Redy., this project is also a reminder that contemporary Greek design can live far beyond the gallery wall or the printed page. It can travel to the beach. It can become part of someone’s holiday ritual. It can sit between design object, souvenir, fashion accessory and functional everyday item. By collaborating with Chrysiida Rouni, Redy. created a collection that feels local, graphic and deeply summery, without falling into the expected visual language of Greek summer products. There are no predictable blue-and-white postcard formulas here. Instead, there is heat, humour, colour, appetite, laziness and a little bit of beachside chaos.

The Illustrated Beach Towels are made for people who like their summer accessories with personality. They are for design lovers, illustration collectors, beach regulars, island hoppers and anyone who believes that even the most practical object deserves a good visual story. Whether you choose Lickaholic, Drip Me Baby, Born Lazy or Eggstasy, the result is the same: a beach towel that does its job, but refuses to behave like a basic one.