Role
Creative Director
Skills
Branding, Typography, Logo Design, Design Production
Background
This project was my capstone project. Using benchmarking and creative exploration I wanted to bring a medical marijuana & CBD company to life. I was inspired by the rising popularity of cannabis industry and was uninspired by the designs I started to see on display. The name came from a conversation with my brother. He said “Dude if we moved out to California, bought a farm, and opened a business, that would be so hype.” And with that, Sohyped was born.
Goal
Brand a medical cannabis company to create an engaging, unique persona that can stand out in the marijuana industry.
Exploration
I began exploring brand personas to find the right look, tone, and feel for Sohyped. My target audience was young adult patients that were looking for alternatives to pain relief. I also benchmarked companies in the marijuana industry and brands from other industries that I found bold and engaging. Here are some insights I discovered while researching.
Sohyped’s audience is cautious of using addictive prescription drugs for pain relief and relies on weaker, over-the-counter alternatives that are designed to dull common pains.
With the rise of marijuana legalization, many patients are now looking towards medical marijuana and CBD for pain relief. While several companies now supply these products, many of them rely on the same imagery of the “pot leaf” or medical icons in their branding.
Sohyped was the focal point of my branding. It’s a reference to the founding of the company and the promise I wanted to make to their customers.
From this exploration, I decided to focus on a typographic logo and simple yet bold branding to support it as a unique medical marijuana and CBD company that can stand out in its industry.
Experimentation
The first design sprint was dedicated to the typographic logo. I searched numerous font libraries including Typekit, Monotype, and Google Fonts. I was drawn to the boldness of sans-serifs with an industrial look and feel. We saw it as modern and a strong contrast to other typefaces being used in the industry. Going with a larger type size also helped open our brand to older customers who have a harder time reading smaller text.
Execution
With the logo now finalized, I shifted my focus to the color and overall branding that would support it. I wanted the main colors to represent the two categories of products: THC and CBD. I decided to explore shades of green for THC to represent the naturally grown marijuana plant that it comes from. CBD, being an extract from marijuana, would be represented by a shade of blue to link it back to the relaxing, calming, pain-relieving properties the CBD products can provide. Once I found the right shades, I began building out the branding guidelines for Sohyped.
Once finalized, I used the new branding to create promotional materials for Sohyped to begin distributing to investors and potential partners. The brand was very well received.
Evaluation
Sohyped is not afraid to do the opposite of its competitors. The more unique the approach the more willing we were to take the risk. This freedom of contrast helped me come to this iconic solution.