*These thoughts and words are my own and have no direct affiliation with the Native Roots brand and/or their owners.
Find the case study here for a more visual understanding of the work created.
The Native Roots project was so much more than just a cannabis branding project or merely a dispensary logo design. This was a comprehensive rebrand and repositioning for one of the largest and leading dispensaries in Colorado's booming cannabis industry.
I wanted to take a moment to talk about the what's, the why's and the how's—I want to explain how we strategically designed the visual identity, how and why this new branding system works, and what the process of research, concepting, refining and presenting looked like.
To start, hours and hours were poured into a rigorous discovery phase where our team dove into the what’s and why’s of Native Roots heritage and history. We combed through external hard drives of brand elements and artifacts, going back to the inception of the Native Roots first logo — a hand painted sign. In addition to understanding how and why this cannabis dispensary brand was initially developed, where the company has been, and where they are going, we also thoroughly wrapped our head around the cannabis industry as a whole. Again: the industry has been, where it currently stands (laws, regulations, key players, etc.), and where it’s going (how is the industry evolving, changing, adapting and growing.)
After a full week of interviews and meetings with key stakeholders and executives at Native Roots, we arrived at our first key insight.
Key insight 1: While many of the employees and regular consumers at Native Roots have a strong affinity for the cannabis dispensary's current logo design, branding and overall visual identity, some of the key stakeholders acknowledged a dire need to reposition the brand as to target the broader, growing cannabis consumer.
The current (old) Native Roots Cannabis Dispensary brand identity positioned the brand to target stoner culture and pot heads. While this positioning made sense for the brand early on—looking at the diffusion of innovation, this brand positioning captured the attention of the early adopters—the brand was evolving into a more mature, educated and established position. This new cannabis dispensary branding needed to speak to the early majority—the middle-aged adults trying or (re)trying weed for the first time, CBD and medical marijuana users, and generally more casual recreational users.
Key insight 2: We realized that not only did the new Native Roots logo design need to be timeless and established, but it needed to convey the dispensary's new desired brand position of being approachable, informed and educated in the cannabis space.
Once we arrived at these key insights, we wanted to understand "why". Why was there such a strong, internal passion for the current brand, and how could we change this (helping alight the visual identity with that of the business's aspirations) without employees feeling ostracized or unheard.
Our Key Findings:
The Native Roots visual brand identity was seen as a proxy for ‘not selling out’: the gnarly tree was a badge of honor worn proudly by many that said “we got into this industry because we are rebels, and just because this business is evolving, we refuse to sell out to the man and follow your rules—we are Colorado’s largest cannabis dispensary, and it is through this mindset that we have found, earned and held this position.” Simply: we got here by using this logo, why would we change it?
Our Diagnosis:
The stoner-culture mentality (the rebels and renegades described above) is no longer fully aligned with that of Native Root's visionary leaders. These leaders see the cannabis industry evolving, and therefore, that evolution should be reflected in this cannabis dispensary branding and visual identity.
It was only after all of this research and strategy did we put pen to paper and pixel to artboard. It was only after going far and wide in our brand exploration, exploring all possibilities, that we referenced our findings, key insights and diagnosis, and settled on the notion that the best solution was more of a "facelift" than a fully "new face". And we lifted hard. Hard and heavy.
Design Concepting with a strategic impetus
To understand where we landed, let’s first take a look at where we started.
The old Native Roots cannabis dispensary visual brand and logo overview: Two logotypes, two brand marks (cross and tree), and 1 pattern that functioned as the main brand-identifier. Let's talk about each individually.
The original mark—the serifed logotype with gnarly tree:
Each of these disparate assets was created at a different time to solve a different problem, and because of this, the brand cohesion began to dissipate.
The Tree and large sharp-serifed logotype were both derived from the original “logo”, a sign painting in suite 300 at the original Native Roots mothership location. This mark was iconic in the sense that it stood out. Native Roots got to market early, so there wasn't a lot of competition or understanding of cannabis industry logo design or branding. This cannabis dispensary brand was rooted in the idea of being disruptive and loud and breaking into the industry early. Initially, these large sharp serifs and gnarly gothic tree had a bold, metal/rock-n-roll influence that as immediately seen and resonated with their initial target consumer: someone off to a Red Rocks show and in pursuit of bong rips of the highest potency cannabis they could find.
The second mark—the sans serif logotype with green cross:
Then, the second logo was added. A cleaner sans serif logotype with a green cross. Early on, the green cross became the ubiquitous cannabis logo. Native Roots harnessed that equity, and they brought this mark into their dispensary branding for various applications, mainly signage. This worked. For a bit. Quickly, every dispensary began to use the green cross, and it, actually became the universal identifier for cannabis. While this universal symbol was beneficial to establish "Native Roots" as a "cannabis dispensary", it did nothing for the brand in terms of differentiating themselves from what was now an exploding industry.
At this point, too much equity had been placed in a mark that is not ownable.
The wallpaper—eventually becoming the brand pattern:
Lastly, we had the brand pattern. Initially developed to be used as a wallpaper instead of wood paneling walls in an effort to save money, during a time of explosive business growth, this pattern became the design solution for all Native Roots cannabis and dispensary brand design needs. Need an exit bag design? Wrap it in the wallpaper. What goes on the back of business cards? Give it the wallpaper treatment. Need a background for fliers? Can we just do the wallpaper at 50% opacity? The ubiquitousness of the wall paper enabled it to become the most memorable and iconic representation of the Native Roots brand. Stark black and white vector graphics and typography rife with cannabis buzz words and stoner culture, this step and repeat design was plastered all over all things Native Roots, and thus, became iconic.
With every positive, there's a negative. The brand's exponential growth in the marijuana industry had them designing with their heads down. Once the team pulled their head up, they acknowledged the incredibly loud and overstimulating retail environment that they had accidentally created. Not ideal for a casual, first time, or CBD user!
Set a goal, steep in the information, and then begin designing.
At this moment, I had a brief moment of fear that I had possibly bitten off a bit more than I could chew. How do we fully reposition and redesign the logo and visual identity of the leading cannabis dispensary in Colorado, while simultaneous changing very little...what does that even mean?!
As mentioned earlier, and with that statement above, we realized that right solution was not going to be a fully new visual identity. The best solution to help Native Roots capture the attention and garner trust and brand advocacy in the ever-growing and evolving cannabis industry was to refresh the brand. And hot damn, did we did we hit that freshness hard!
The new Native Roots brand identity.
This cannabis dispensary logo design and visual brand identity design was nothing short of meticulous and thorough. Kerning for hours, designing for weeks, thinking for months — we thought through just about everything. Here's a look at just some of what we did (I don't think anybody needs this post to be a whole lot longer)
The new Native Roots cannabis dispensary logotype and logo / brand mark.
I won't repeat myself over and over again — so know that every decision described below directly referenced our concise, aforementioned key diagnosis: "the best solution is a "facelift" as opposed to a fully "new face".
That said, we knew we didn't have to directly evolve every element; however, it just so worked out that that's just what we did.
Key adjustments
The brand lockup, from a structural standpoint, was visually centered...Surprise—the old mark was off-center!
The typography style itself was an amalgamation of the two previously used logotypes. Referencing the sans serif, condensed logotype, the new Native Roots logotype is tall, sleek, and slightly condensed. Additionally, we designed some tight, modern, copperplate serifs that harken back to the "huge sharp serif's" used in the original logo. Together, the new dispensary logo embodied the professionalism and trustworthiness the brand wanted to convey while striving to be timeless, approachable and memorable... a lot of pressure for just 11 letters!
The tree logo and brand mark. Whew, this one was a doozy. How many different ways can you draw a tree, branches, or roots? From our exploration, the answer is a conservative zillion. After much exploration of new trees, different trees, and fundamentally different compositions, we arrived at this solution, which is essentially a simplification of the original tree logo as well as a push for easier approachability. Encompassed in an ovular shape, we were not only able to add the 'crest' element as a carrier shape that helped conceptually depict the "ground" (with the roots growing beneath the soil) but this carrier shape has a touch more professionalism and enables the Native Roots tree logo to stand alone and feel substantial.
Liberating happiness. This isn't something we've touched on much at this point, but it is the key driving excerpt from Native Root's brand manifesto. To Liberate Happiness is why they are in business! That said, we not only reworked and simplified the lettering (it was previously a fairly unrefined and lawless piece of typography) as to be more legible at various scales, but we felt this brand initiate was important to lead with. The phrase "liberate happiness" is lighthearted, fun and approachable, and in an effort to capture those light/occasional users, leading with this phrase makes the brand more approachable and relatable.
The cross. As ubiquitous as the green cross may be, it still is the international signifier for a cannabis dispensary brand or shop. So, we essentially kept this piece the same; however, we significantly reduced the precedence and thus, the equity of the mark itself.
The wallpaper. This was a fun one! We explored countless other styles, approaches, treatments and techniques for this solution. Ultimately, we arrived on this solution, which works for a number of reasons.
1: With over 100 individual elements, the new illustration style is intentionally easily replicable. The monoline style is easy to recreate by almost any designer in the case that they want to add any new products, services or illustrations. Additionally, this new style is unanimous, fun, approachable, sometimes whimsical, and far less intimidating than the previous style, comprised of multiple illustration styles.
2: this pattern, while having a primary squared format, is now intended to be broken apart, rearranged, and even contributed to based on its application. All illustrations, icons, and typography fall into one of three categories: production, brand or usage applications. So it's either an element to speaks to Native Roots' products or services, an element that is a Native Roots brand asset, or a an element that relates to "what you can do" when using Native Roots' products or services.
3: the new brand pattern is not only now relevant (sorry yall, no more UFO's sucking up Cows, Afros, strains of cannabis no longer carried by the brand, or risk of the words GRAPE APE being inappropriately cropped due to wall specs) but the treatment is tone on tone treatment. The darker warm tan on a lighter tan is substantially more approachable and less overwhelming than the stark black and white wall paper previously used.
4: while yes, the wallpaper over-usage was becoming an issue for the brand, the new treatment of these assets is more of an accent than a full solution. The overall art direction, as described next, calls for using these elements in moderation, functioning as moments of delight, not full-blown marketing or advertising solutions.
Color palette: The new color palette, honestly, is nothing revolutionary. But that's okay! Green, yellow, black, white, and tan being the primary colors, we were able to use an adjusted version of the previous brand-green, pull some golden-yellows from the cannabis fibers and plants themselves, and then soften the overall contrast of the brand through use of the light and dark hemp-tans. Of course, black and white are colors used in every brand.
Typography system: the supporting typefaces used were ITC Stone Serif STD, Commuters Sans, and Aurora Script. Stone's modulation spoke to the natural qualities of the cannabis plant, while also being bold and beautiful enough to be used for headlines. The Commuters Sans font family is a humanist sans that is directly inspired by the original Native Roots logo painted in their first office. Commuter has 16 different fonts within the family, enabling for lots of flexibility when drafting marking collateral. While a fairly simple humanist sans, Commuter still has enough character for headlines to be typeset (mainly in digital applications) and have enough character to be distinct and stand out.
Photography: Make things feel human and approachable. Signs of humanity (whether that be actually seeing people, a hand, or a lit joint smoking half smoked in the ashtray) make the communication relatable, and it enables the viewer to put themselves in that scene. Product photography can be isolated on white or on a color to help showcase the care and quality of Native Roots' offerings. This treatment puts the focus on the product itself, and enables the viewer/consumer to soak in the detailed perfection harnessed by each individual item.
Art Direction: The general art direction of the brand — how these assets are used to tell a visually consistent and cohesive story across all touch points was fairly simple. Leveraging negative space (after years of full-graphic-pattern-everything) was a huge change in itself. This aids in approachability of communication and priority and hierarchy of information. As a sign off, the new pattern has the flexibility and depth as to be used to further highlight the communication itself. Are you creating an ad that markets a 'buy one get one' when entering with a friend? Perfect: use an illustration of a joint, two hands passing a joint back and forth, a smiley face, and a Native Roots brand mark to cap it off. This story telling is an extra layer of depth infused into the brand that we're truly excited about.
Even though were about ~2,600 words in here, we've only brushed the surface of the consideration, quality and care that went into developing the new Native Roots Cannabis Dispensary branding, logo and visual identity.
After being put to market A/B testing, new brand vs old brand, the insights and results were clear. The new brand was revered as the professional, approachable, and premium cannabis brand that Native Roots had hoped. Additionally, the internal Native Roots team was floored by the brand updates, and vocalized their appreciation for how the new brand directly referenced and related to the heritage of this dispensary brand past.
Some icing on the cake, because of the relatability of these two visual identities (old and new), both will able to live in the market without significant cognitive dissonance from the consumer.
To date, this has been one of the most enjoyable and simultaneously challenging projects that we've had the opportunity to work on. It wouldn't have been possible without lots of design and strategy support and the incredible Native Roots marketing and design team lead by Chris Znerold.
If you have any questions or comments about process or ideas, hit me with your thoughts in the comments below!
Cheers — Adam