EMBER CANNABIS
Sparking something new
Our branding project for Ember Cannabis kicked off with a name, a vibe, a very tight timeframe, and not much else. And a request to incorporate a tiger, because “tigers are awesome.” As you’ll see below, the tiger didn’t make it into the final brand, but we tried. We drew a lot of tigers. But the tiger explorations were useful in that they helped guide and finesse that aforementioned vibe into a pretty solid brand platform for a new high-end cannabis line.
And that vibe is a mix of: casual luxury, evoking the golden age of travel; the relaxed and carefree feeling when you’re sliding into a magical evening; a timeless sense of exploration without the pressures of the outside world getting in the way; sitting around a fire on a beach with trusted friends as the sun goes down. Key words were happiness, relaxation, and warmth. All that, plus the easy confidence of a tiger.
services provided:
identity
illustration
photography
print
digital
Logo and secondary marks.
Color palette.
Typography.
But before we could sink our fangs into the meat of the branding, we had to nail down a logo. The launch was planned in two months’ time and since the vape pen was being manufactured overseas, we had to get it on the production schedule as soon as possible to make that deadline. We explored a range of fonts and some custom lettering ideas but nothing was hitting quite right. On a gut feeling we pitched EMBER set in the font Primissima, which was a left field choice because of its Art Nouveau styling, different from the directions we had been looking at. It felt … kinda good? The more we sat with it the better we liked it. With the gracious permission of muccaTypo, we modified the letterforms to craft a more cohesive and unique logo mark.
At the top, the word EMBER set in muccaTypo’s Primisimma font. Below, a customized version of the letterforms.
Logotype on vape pen.
Tiger? What Tiger?
At this point we were pretty far along with the tiger artwork. The plan was to create a stylized illustration showing the tiger striding across a beach, with the ocean in the background, mountains in the distance, and hints of tropical foliage. To better integrate the artwork with the logo, we came up with an arched frame device which we began referring to as “the portal.” And of course just as it was all coming together, new industry regulations were announced that banned the depiction of animals. Did everyone freak out? Yes, yes we did. But after some emergency brainstorming it was decided that, with some tweaks, the scene itself would suffice without the tiger. The mountains became one sharp vertical peak. The foliage and lines of the water stood in for stripes. The shapes of the elements took on a more angular appearance to reference the 86’d tiger.
In the end, losing the tiger benefitted the brand by making it less specific. The portal became a scene you entered into. It could be anywhere in the world (that has mountains and water and tropical foliage), or it could be an imaginary location, perhaps a place called Ember.
At this point we should talk about color, because as the artwork progressed, so did the color palette. The original explorations used a more muted range of colors pulled from luxury goods and branding. Earthy adventurous tones, as if you’re driving your Range Rover packed with Filson luggage while dressed in Ralph Lauren duds. But as we went along, the colors became bolder and brighter, eventually ending up as basically primaries: red, yellow, and blue, with orange as a companion color, dark purple and ecru for contrast, and foil stamping in a bronze tone. It was an unexpected color palette. It was vibrant and evocative and anyway, we needed to move on to packaging, because that was the next thing to figure out and we only had one month left.
Ember “portal” artwork with logotype.
Unstuck from the Past
While working up a one-color version of the new portal artwork, we mocked up some sticker designs — because if it works on a sticker it just plain works — and discovered that the artwork, when used in certain color combinations, had the feel of vintage luggage labels, matchbooks, and travel posters. It was an ideal connotation. The vibe for Ember already had a whiff of nostalgia, and this was a nice expression of it. The concept of a modern take on vintage travel ephemera was something we would come back to later on.
Die-cut stickers of the portal artwork and logotype.
Lock It Up
Meanwhile, the Ember crew had pretty much settled on using LeafLocker packaging, which was great, because there wasn’t time for a completely custom carton design. Tray inserts would still need to be customized to hold the two devices, an all-in-one vape pen and a 510-thread cartridge, but that was already underway. We just had to figure out how to apply the new branding to the LeafLocker box.
We arrived at three colorways to distinguish between Indica, Sativa, and Hybrid strains. The labels would be ecru, and the trays would be orange, a nice surprise pop of color when unboxing your new vape treat. A subtle debossed arch on the front of the box would contain the artwork and the label, as well as act as a handy guide for label application. The portal artwork and logo got the embossing treatment along with bronze foil accents.
Beauty shot of an Ember carton.
All three colorways of the Ember cartons.
A closeup shot of the box artwork, showing embossing, debossing, and foil-stamping details.
Two tray designs were created to hold the All In One vape pens and the 510-thread cartridges.
The carton top flap emblazoned with a foil-stamped Ember logo.
Wish You Were Here
This is where we dive back into vintage inspiration. We needed something that could tie all the brand elements together, a further expression of the Ember vibe. Something that could ground it all and let the identity stand out. We suggested taking a look at old tourist postcards from the 40s through the 60s. A quick trip to our favorite antique store yielded the results we were looking for: tightly cropped scans of postcard photos became perfect backgrounds. Zooming in let the halftone dots of the poor quality printing create texture and a dose of abstraction. Placing text, logos, and beauty shots of the devices on top of the scans created mini posters that practically designed themselves (and we got a little carried away making them because it was fun).
Old postcard photography repurposed as brand backgrounds.
Finally, we put all the pieces together to suggest how the brand might live on social media. We also created a templated render of the boxes alongside photos of the devices to use as online graphics for the website and dispensary menus.
Instagram post mockups.
Templated e-commerce renders.
In the end the timeline stretched from two months to … longer. Unexpected delays, unforeseen complications, changes due to regulations, changes in direction, the usual stuff. Out of our hands. But the bulk of the design was accomplished in a two month sprint and we’re pretty happy with how it turned out (that said, we do not recommend a two month sprint for creating and launching a new brand from scratch). Welcome to the world, Ember. And welcome to the world of Ember.
And if you’ve read this far, you deserve to see the tiger.
Seen enough? Questions?
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