Danielle Harmadi’s home was bursting at the seams with four rooms used to support a growing business.
“My kitchen was used for production; my formal living room had our desks,” said Harmadi, who along with her sister, Brianne Diermeier started Freshwater Design Co. about five years ago.
By January 2020, the duo knew it was time to move into a dedicated space. The sisters began using 1022 Broad St. for production in February. It’s not ready for retail just yet.
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Freshwater Design Co. started out as a way for the two sisters to earn extra travel money. Harmadi and Diermeier hail from Wisconsin, but they’ve lived in various parts of the country.
Harmadi moved to the area first by way of her husband’s career, and the wood-burned signs she made for her wedding were the first pieces in the business.
“People wanted them,” she said.
Diermeier, a graphic designer, was living in New Hampshire at the time.
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The business products and model changed over the course of five years. The sisters moved from the bigger wood-burned signs to smaller items, such as leather passport covers and luggage tags and key fobs with a retro hotel design.
The key fobs have various slogans on them. One popular design customizes it to a state or city, said Diermeier.
They’ve expanded their product line to include leather earrings, bracelets and leather-wrapped candles. Baseball caps are hugely popular.
Freshwater Design Co. offers a variety of items including leather passport covers, hats, key fobs and jewelry. Staff photo by Charmain Z. Brackett
“Hats are flying off the shelves,” said Harmadi.
The sisters are constantly thinking about new product ideas, Diermeier said.
In the early days of Freshwater Design Co., the sisters traveled to many events to sell their items. They’d drive in a six-hour radius, participating in shows from Nashville, Tenn. to Tampa, Fla. But the shows themselves created a brutal cycle.
Harmadi said they’d make enough money to pay for the fees for the next market they attended.
A break came right before the pandemic.
They’d met a representative from the Atlanta Market several times over the years. She’d invited them to participate, but it was too cost-prohibitive. Finally, Diermeier and Hamardi took a leap and participated in the January 2020 show.
They left it with 20 customers, retail store owners desiring to purchase their product wholesale and resell it.
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Like many business owners, the pandemic reshaped the sisters’ plans, but in their case, it was for the good.
After years of doing everything by hand, Harmadi needed a laser machine to create the designs on the leather. Diermeier knew someone in New Hampshire who worked with laser machines for a living and consulted him for the best one for their purposes.
Even though the pandemic forced retailers to close their brick-and-mortar spaces, retailers went online, taking the sisters’ products with them. Their business slightly slowed for a short time, they said.
They had hoped to return to the Atlanta Market in July, but the pandemic shut that down. It was reopened by January 2021. Even with the market scaled back, they picked up new retailers. They also found an online distributor, and now their brand is in 350 stores nationwide. That distributor is expanding in the United Kingdom, so Freshwater Design Co. products could go there at some point.
They have recently hired two employees, and more expansion is on the way.
They hope to open their space to retail customers within a few months.
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Diermeier said they plan to have their products available, as well as other items from other creative people in the area that would complement each other. She envisions one place where a shopper could create unique gift baskets.
She said they’d love to see downtown as a shopping destination.
To learn more about Freshwater Design Co., visit freshwaterdesign.co or find them on Instagram @freshwaterdesignco.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the features editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com.
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