Daufuskie Island: The One You Have to Work For
Daufuskie Island sits approximately 1.2 miles from Hilton Head—close enough to see, impossible to reach without a ferry.
No bridge. No causeway. No day-trippers pulling off I-95 to "check it out real quick."
You want Daufuskie? You're taking a boat. You're committing.
Which is exactly why people are obsessed with it.
The Appeal of Being Difficult
Hilton Head: planned communities, championship golf, restaurants with valet parking.
Daufuskie: dirt roads, wild horses, a historic bathtub landmark called the SS Scrap Iron (yes, really), and approximately 400 year-round residents who are perfectly happy you can't just drive here.
One island is designed for maximum tourist efficiency.
The other is a 5,000-acre time capsule of Gullah Geechee culture, historic homes on stilts, and the kind of coastal authenticity you can't fake—mostly because it predates the entire concept of "coastal authenticity" as a marketable aesthetic.
Why I Drew This
After spending months deep in municipal branding (shoutout to every RFP that made me an expert in city council approval processes), I decided I needed to draw something that couldn't be workshopped to death by a committee.
So: patterns. Specifically, Lowcountry patterns.
I'm working through Beaufort, Charleston, Savannah, Bluffton, St. Simons—the whole coastal Carolina lineup—capturing what makes each place visually itself without resorting to generic palm tree clip art.
Daufuskie was particularly satisfying because it's aggressively un-generic. You can't accidentally end up here. You can't mistake it for somewhere else.
What's In It
Historic architecture (elevated, weathered, earned). Coastal wildlife. Island-specific details. Golf carts. Oysters. More oysters. Transportation methods that require water.
The color palette is muted Lowcountry: faded blues, palmetto greens, weathered wood grays, sand and shell tones.
Each element works individually or tiled seamlessly. Designed for wallpaper, textiles, home goods, or anywhere you need authentic coastal without the resort polish.
The Bigger Picture
This is part of an ongoing Lowcountry collection I'm developing. Each pattern captures a specific place with the kind of detail that makes locals say "yes, exactly" and everyone else say "I need to go there."
Still in production. More destinations coming soon.