The studio behind the markers.
18th Grain is a Vancouver-based design studio that creates handcrafted tee markers, yardage markers, plaques, and signage for golf courses worldwide. Every piece is commissioned for a specific course.
18th Grain designs and builds custom golf course markers from locally sourced hardwoods in Vancouver, British Columbia. The studio serves private clubs, resort properties, and management companies that want their course condition to reflect the same intention and quality their members expect everywhere else.
Each commission begins with the course itself. Its identity, its landscape, its membership. From there, the studio designs marker systems, signage, and commemorative pieces that belong to that specific place. Nothing is pulled from a catalogue. Every piece is designed, CNC-fabricated, and finished in the studio.
The result is work that elevates the playing experience. Markers and signs built with the same care as the greens they sit beside.
- Studio
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Designer & maker
- Benjamin McLaughlin
- Specialization
- Custom tee markers, yardage markers, commemorative plaques, course signage, and course accessories
- Materials
- Locally sourced hardwoods, mixed-media elements, metal inlays, and epoxy finishes
- Clients
- Private golf clubs, resort courses, and course management companies worldwide
- Production
- Bespoke. Every piece is designed and built for a specific course.
Over 15 years of design and craft.
Benjamin McLaughlin is an award-winning artist and designer in Vancouver, British Columbia. He trained at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and holds a Bachelor of Industrial Design from Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
With twenty years studying design and fifteen years in professional practice, his studio work spans furniture, art, and bespoke commissions for private and commercial clients. That depth of craft experience is what the studio brings to every golf course commission: understanding how materials behave, how finishes age, how form serves function.
- Training
- Bachelor of Industrial Design, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver. Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design.
- Studio location
- Vancouver, British Columbia
- Practice
- Fifteen years of commissioned furniture, art, and bespoke design
- Capabilities
- CNC fabrication, hand finishing, mixed-media construction, custom hardware, design consultation
Commissioned, not ordered.
Consultation
Tell us about your course, your membership, and what you have in mind. We work with superintendents, club managers, and course designers to understand the setting and the brief.
Design
We develop concepts tailored to your course: material selection, finish, form, and branding integration. You review and refine with us until the design is right.
Production
Each piece is CNC-fabricated and finished in our Vancouver studio. We manage production, quality, and delivery so the finished markers arrive ready for the course.