Environmental graphic design within a high-end hospitality and mixed-use destination, featuring large-scale architectural graphics, branded placemaking, and integrated wayfinding in an open-concept food hall environment. The space showcases experiential design, custom lighting installations, and immersive storytelling elements that enhance circulation, guest experience, and tenant identity within a retail and entertainment setting.

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The Skydeck

Gather at the Helm of Local Flavors

Project type

Placemaking Design Wayfinding Signage Design

Project sector

Food & Beverage
Environmental graphic design and branded placemaking at an outdoor hospitality and mixed-use destination, featuring large-scale building identification signage for The Sky Deck, integrated wayfinding, and experiential graphics. The open-air food hall environment includes custom lighting, tenant identity, and activation elements that enhance guest experience, support retail and entertainment uses, and strengthen sense of place within a coastal lifestyle destination.

Project info

Client Donahue Schriber Realty Group, Inc.

Architect Retail Design Collaborative

Charting the journey

At Skydeck Del Mar, RSM Design helped transform a culinary destination into a layered storytelling experience rooted in the character of the Southern California coast. In collaboration with Donahue Schriber and Retail Design Collaborative, the team brought a sense of place to life through experiential graphics, wayfinding, and placemaking that embraced the area’s nautical heritage. From custom-painted murals to salvaged materials and vintage nautical objects, every element was carefully curated to feel authentic, timeworn, and evocative.

The design narrative flows seamlessly into the Brewers Deck, an open-air beer garden perched above the food hall, where RSM Design developed a distinct identity and signage system to match the relaxed, coastal vibe. Playful references to maritime navigation and cartography add a layer of discovery and delight, while maintaining a cohesive visual language throughout the space. The result is a destination that invites exploration, sparks connection, and resonates with a strong sense of local identity.

Environmental graphic design within a high-end hospitality and mixed-use food hall environment, featuring branded tenant identity for Le Parfait Paris, integrated wayfinding, and architectural graphics. The open-concept interior showcases experiential design, custom furnishings, and immersive placemaking elements that enhance guest experience, support retail and dining environments, and reinforce a cohesive brand strategy within an entertainment destination.

Nine restaurants and a central cocktail bar under the San Diego skylight.

Market

Food & Beverage
A collection of dimensional tenant identity signs mounted on a corrugated metal wall, featuring restaurant and food and beverage brands including Le Parfait Paris, Marufuku Ramen, Zizikis Street Food, Kiin Extraordinary Thai, Urbana Mexican Gastronomy, Glass Box, Ambrogio15, Crafthouse Sky Deck, Understory, and others — each rendered in unique materials, patinas, and typographic styles — showcasing RSM Design's tenant signage, master sign programs, and experiential graphics and branded environments across food and beverage and mixed-use markets
Interior of Marufuku Ramen restaurant featuring an expansive underwater-themed mural with kelp, fish, and ocean imagery spanning the ceiling and upper walls, suspended driftwood fish sculptures, Japanese typography applied to a textured bar front, and warm Edison bulb lighting over a fully seated dining room — demonstrating RSM Design's experiential graphics and branded environments, placemaking, and art programs and public art services within the food and beverage and mixed-use markets
Interior of Crafthouse restaurant and bar featuring a dramatic industrial-nautical themed space with suspended rope netting, heavy chain rigging, lush hanging greenery, and a backlit full-service bar beneath a dimensional metal letter logo — illustrating RSM Design's experiential graphics and branded environments, placemaking, and specialty graphics services within the food and beverage and mixed-use markets

Transforming a food hall into a memorable destination through nautical storytelling, authentic materials, and intuitive navigation for a curated coastal experience.

A dimensional white "W" letter mounted on an antique brass porthole fixture affixed to a warm cedar wood wall, serving as a themed restroom identification sign — exemplifying RSM Design's specialty graphics and experiential graphics and branded environments approach to wayfinding and signage design within the food and beverage and mixed-use markets
A floor-to-ceiling interior feature wall composed of vertically suspended nautical ropes in varying thicknesses and natural fiber tones, dramatically lit against a warm wood plank backdrop — exemplifying RSM Design's placemaking and experiential graphics and branded environments approach to specialty graphics and art programs within the food and beverage and mixed-use markets
Four naturally weathered driftwood pieces mounted on a reclaimed wood plank wall, each hand-lettered in white with individual tenant identities — "J," Glass Box, Zizikis, and Marufuku Ramen — serving as organic, material-driven wayfinding and tenant identification signs that exemplify RSM Design's specialty graphics, placemaking, and experiential graphics and branded environments approach within the food and beverage and mixed-use markets
A circular navy blue projecting restroom sign reading "Head Dead Ahead" with universal gender pictograms, mounted among nautical rope and trailing ivy in an industrial-themed interior — showcasing RSM Design's playful and themed approach to wayfinding and signage design and specialty graphics within the food and beverage and mixed-use markets

Service

Experiential Graphic Design

Experience anchored in nautical charm.

Exterior entry wall of Crafthouse Sky Deck featuring large-scale vertical "Brewers Deck" typographic wayfinding with an upward arrow, alongside a bronze interpretive plaque introducing the Sky Deck's nautical story and San Diego gastronomy concept — illustrating RSM Design's integrated approach to wayfinding and signage design, experiential graphics and branded environments, and placemaking within the food and beverage and mixed-use markets
Interior entry wall of Crafthouse Sky Deck featuring a floor-to-ceiling neon bottle outline with a dimensional "Brewers Deck" typographic directional arrow on weathered copper wall panels, flanked by hand-lettered wayfinding arrows directing guests to Northern Pine, Rough Draft, and Boochcraft — demonstrating RSM Design's integrated approach to experiential graphics and branded environments, specialty graphics, and wayfinding and signage design within the food and beverage and mixed-use markets
A dramatic nautical-themed arrival vignette at Crafthouse Brewers Deck featuring a large antique ship's wheel centered against a weathered copper wall with stenciled "Brewers Deck" lettering, draped fishing net, warm wood decking, and an interpretive panel — exemplifying RSM Design's placemaking, experiential graphics and branded environments, and specialty graphics services that create immersive, story-driven moments within the food and beverage and mixed-use markets

Service

Branded Interiors
Rooftop exterior of Crafthouse Brewers Deck at dusk featuring oversized dimensional "Brewers Deck" channel letters mounted on a perforated metal facade, with illuminated tenant identity panels for Boochcraft, Northern Pine Brewing, and Rough Draft Brewing Company visible beneath a lively open-air dining terrace — showcasing RSM Design's master sign programs, tenant signage, and experiential graphics and branded environments within the food and beverage and mixed-use markets