A custom umbrella starts with a brief, not a catalogue page.
Most projects begin with a requirement a stock umbrella cannot meet. A brand colour that has to be matched as closely as the process allows rather than left to chance. A frame that has to survive an exposed golf course in spring. Artwork that runs across the whole canopy instead of sitting on one panel. From there it becomes a specification: canopy fabric and panel colours, handle, shaft, tips and sleeve, print method, and sometimes the shape itself.
Below are three projects told the way they happened, from the brief through the proof to the umbrella that arrived. The specifications are real and repeatable. If one of them is close to what you have in mind, tell us which and give us your colours, and we will scope it.
- Minimum
- From 100 unitsCustom made production, built to your own specification
- Production
- 4 to 6 weeks by airOr approximately 10 to 12 weeks by sea, the lower cost route
- Colour
- PMS colour matchingMatched as closely as the fabric and print process allow, confirmed on proof
- Proof
- Digital proof to approveProvided as part of the order process
01 / Not for profit
When the weather is the event, the brand has to hold up
The Robert Connor Dawes Foundation funds brain cancer research and support for young patients, and its brand does a lot of work at outdoor community events. The team needed umbrellas that held the navy and mint palette properly, carried the three birds motif at a size people could actually see, and looked like part of the foundation rather than merchandise.
A custom golf frame with a vented canopy, alternating navy and mint panels, so the logo roundel sits on a light ground for contrast, the foundation name runs across the border and the birds spread over the navy panels. Colour runs edge to edge with no white seams at the panel joins. Fabric was matched to the brand references and approved physically as part of the order process, so the closest achievable match was agreed rather than assumed.
The umbrellas read as the foundation from a distance, in the weather, which is what an event canopy needs to do.
02 / Licensed brand
Fifty years of the Rubik's Cube, carried on a beach umbrella
Mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Rubik's Cube with something that felt like the cube rather than a logo on a product. The anniversary mark is built from the puzzle's own colours, so the piece had to carry them at full strength.
A beach umbrella was chosen over a handheld style because the wide, shallow canopy shows every panel at once, the way you see a whole face of the cube. Solid panels in red, yellow, blue, green, orange and white, with the fiftieth anniversary mark printed across the white panel and the wordmark repeated on the coloured ones. Each panel colour was matched to the brand references and approved physically as part of the order process, since an off tone red or yellow would read immediately against a colour system people already know by heart.
Open, it reads as the cube from across a beach or an event lawn.
03 / Golf course
A golf course put its own green on the canopy
The Green at Tanawha needed golf umbrellas for use around the course that looked like the course itself, not a branded giveaway. A crest on a plain panel was the obvious route, so we went the other way: the canopy itself becomes the green.
A custom golf frame carrying a full canopy artwork printed by dye sublimation, which is what allows a design to run continuously across every panel instead of sitting inside one. Brushed rings of fairway green and water blue radiate from a dark centre that lands where the tip cup sits, so from above the open umbrella reads as a green with the pin at its middle. Colours were matched to the club references and approved physically as part of the order process, since the greens carry the whole design.
An umbrella that is recognisably the course from a distance, on the fairway and in the rain.
How a brief becomes an umbrella
Style, quantity, colours and the date it has to land. We tell you what is achievable and what is not, in that first conversation.
A digital proof showing canopy, panels, handle and print, with PMS colours confirmed as part of the order process.
Approximately 4 to 6 weeks from order and artwork approval by air, or approximately 10 to 12 weeks by sea.
Delivered anywhere in Australia, with multi-site distribution coordinated where a rollout needs it.
Custom made production is a different process from our stock ranges, and it is not always the right answer. Where a standard frame carrying your logo will do the job, our compact and folding, golf and executive and corporate ranges start from 25 units and dispatch in approximately 10 working days from artwork approval, with rush orders accommodated where possible. We will tell you which route suits your brief.
Extras you can add to a custom run
Print the underside
The inside of the canopy is the surface the person holding it looks at. A message, a pattern or a photographic sky, printed where only they see it.
Handles, shafts and tips
EVA straight is standard. Wooden or ABS straight and hook handles are available as an upgrade, with the shaft, ferrule and rib tips finished in your colours rather than stock black.
Sleeve, band and packaging
Printed carry sleeve, branded tie band, woven label and a custom gift box or mailer, so the umbrella arrives as a gift rather than as stock.
A logo on the handle end
A full colour badge set into the base of the handle. It shows when the umbrella is standing in a rack or resting against a desk, and it puts your brand in a second place people notice.
- Edge to edge photographic canopy by dye sublimation, full colour artwork with no seams in the design.
- Recycled rPET canopy fabric for a brand that has to stand behind its materials.
- Non-standard shapes and sizes built from your own sample or brief.
- Contrast panel piping and trim to pick up a second brand colour.
- Reflective binding where the umbrella is used near traffic or on site.
- Individual name personalisation for teams, gifts and awards.
- Vented double canopy for exposed sites, coastal use and golf courses.
- Auto open or auto open and close mechanisms on compact and golf frames.
Custom made umbrellas, at a glance
Custom made umbrellas start from 100 units, built to your own specification rather than a stock model.
Production runs approximately 4 to 6 weeks by air from order and artwork approval.
Sea freight costs less and runs approximately 10 to 12 weeks from order and artwork approval.
PMS colour matching across canopy panels, handle components and carry sleeve, as close as the fabric and print process allow.
Dye sublimation carries photographic artwork across the whole canopy, including over the panel seams.
Non-standard shapes and sizes are produced from your sample or brief.
Custom made umbrella questions
The minimum order for a custom made umbrella
How long a custom made umbrella takes to produce
How closely brand colours can be matched
When a stock umbrella is the better choice
Whether your project can appear in this gallery
How to start a project from one of these examples
Start with the brief
Your colours, your quantity, your deadline. We will tell you what it takes to make it.