Visiting Tolleson
Just across the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito is famous for its Mediterranean-style hillside architecture, iconic floating houseboat communities, and sweeping views of the San Francisco skyline.
It’s also home to Tolleson, a top-tier design studio quietly producing world-class work while keeping a relatively low profile. During San Francisco Design Week, I headed across the bay to check out their studio open house.
Dimensional Tolleson logomark mounted on the studio entryway wall.
Founded in 1984 by Principal Steve Tolleson, the studio handles strategy, design, writing, and photography. Over the past four decades, they’ve crafted work for iconic brands like Nike, Gap, and Adobe as well as startups like Lucid Motors and Joby Aviation.
Tolleson studio just a little ways north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
From the street, the building stands out with its slatted wood facade and clean gabled roofline. Walking inside, you're greeted by a sleek, dimensional black Tolleson logomark mounted right on the entryway wall.
Inside Tolleson’s Sausalito studio during the SF Design Week open house.
Upstairs, the workspace opens up with exposed wooden trusses, polished concrete floors, and long white team desks. Directly to the right, a massive white wall features pinned brand development collateral, highlighted by a full spread of identity and photography work for Lucid Motors.
A wide wall-mounted grid displaying identity guidelines, brand story sheets, and campaign imagery for Lucid Motors inside Tolleson’s studio.
A detailed look at brand identity guidelines for Lucid Motors, including clear space rules for the Lucid Bear icon and typography specs.
Further back, they had displays highlighting their packaging systems for Nike from sustainable Move to Zero totes to Air Jordan’s luxury Jordan Lux line.
Reusable Nike retail tote bags and print collateral developed as part of Tolleson’s sustainable packaging implementation for Nike’s Move to Zero initiative.
Print tests and logo development card for Nike’s Jordan Lux line on display at the studio
One of the coolest moments of the night was meeting the legendary Steve Tolleson. I was surprised by how soft-spoken and approachable he was in person. He shared with me that this open house was actually the studio’s first time opening its doors to the public, as he’s always preferred keeping a low profile.
He also shared that he remains actively involved in daily design work which is kinda wild considering he is principal. I asked him about the process for the Lucid bear mark and the Dictionary brand identiy
As I walked around, I got the chance to connect with several of the designers on the team. They were all super welcoming and down-to-earth, happy to talk through their creative process and answer questions about their work.
Group photo with designers on the Tolleson team in front of their project display board.