Designs Inspired by Life, Adventure, and Saltwater

I’m Kara Welker, the creator behind Kara Welker Designs which began as Saltwater Culture, a brand I started as a coffee shop and now has morphed into a life style brand and illustration business based around my obsession with the ocean.

Growing up on a farm in Missouri I spent the first 23 years of my life knowing nothing about the ocean or that I would soon not be able to live without it. Leaving Missouri at 23 I lived in 5 countries and 3 states for the rest of my twenties with two and a half years of that being in Australia where I fell in love with Coffee and the Ocean. Moving to San Diego in 2018 I continued working in coffee and playing music but always wanted to have my own shop. That dream was realized in 2021 when I opened Saltwater Culture, a coffee shop built by friends, for friends. I slowly started adding merch, hiring local designers to help me but always wishing I could learn the design process myself. Life took a turn at the end of 2023 and I found myself having to swivel and challenge myself to learn new things and that’s when I decided to really dive into design and try for myself.

New to the graphic design and illustration world, everything I have learned has been self taught, “Youtube University” and internships. Starting slow and organic has always been my style so currently I do designs for small businesses, NGO’s and custom designs for individuals. Having fallen in love with the ocean later in life, most of my designs are inspired by the adventures of early mornings wake ups, a good cup of coffee and chasing the good surf, free diving, spear fishing, or kayaking.

Though I am new to this world of design I hope to some day be a full time illustrator, with a life style brand, who can also coach other self taught humans who didn’t think they could change their careers later in life and do something they’ve never done before. My motivation to prove my own limiting beliefs wrong is what has fueled this new found passion.