TERP HAVEN
Terp Haven is a high end cannabis dispensary with locations around the San Francisco Bay Area. Terp Haven is dedicated to bringing high quality cannabis to customers in their area with a touch of class. During the initial discovery session, Phil, the CEO, painted a picture of a luxury cannabis brand that would attract the consumer base that shops at Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Tory Burch and other luxury brands. Phil also told me that each delivery driver would be dressed in a nice suit and their delivery cars would be Tesla Model 3's to maintain the look and feel of the high end dispensaries. The dispensaries would be a modern cafe interior design much like the Nespresso Cafes and the Apothecarium in SanFrancisco. Regarding the logo, he wanted the subtlety of a leaf in the logo but didn't want a blatant pot leaf like other brands portray.
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MOOD BOARD
To make sure we were both shooting in the same direction, I created a mood board to visualize the brands he recommended.
We had keywords like Luxury, Sophistication, Elegant, and Modern. But what exactly do those things look like? Let me show you...
THE LOOK
Some of the names we tossed around in our initial brain storming session were Louis Vuitton, Tory Burch, Gucci and several other luxury brands. Why do people want to buy these brands? The answer is simple...it makes them feel good. They like the way it looks, they like the way it feels, and they most likely enjoy the status it brings them when they walk around downtown in these brands. They want something that is high quality and that is exactly what Terp Haven customers can expect from this brand.
THE FEEL
The feel we discussed about the brick and mortar locations of Terp Haven need to have a modern feel with ambient lighting to give off a soothing and welcoming feel to the locations, much like the Nespresso Cafes and the Apothecarium Dispensary in San Francisco. The logo needs to reflect those feelings also.
THE CLIENT
The client is obviously the most important part of this business. We need to communicate to them that this brand is a high end product for high end customers. We want to attract the clients that enjoy the finer things in life and are willing to pay a bit more for that top quality service that they will come to expect from Terp Haven. The knowledge that the whole staff will have, along with their friendly and well-kempt disposition, will remind the customer of the quality experience they receive ever time they see the Terp Haven logo and visual identities.
DELIVERY
When someone pulls up to your driveway in a Tesla, you know you’re getting the royal treatment. But driving a Tesla means more than that. It shows our clientele that we care about the environment and we are doing our part to eliminate some of the carbon footprint. Not to mention that we can get the products to our clients in a faster more efficient time frame with access to car pool lanes. We need this logo to be the same feeling you get when you see that Tesla logo. We are fast, efficient, classy with a whole lot of style.
DISCOVERY
I know most people know what a terpene is, well I didn’t until I did a little research on it and I found out that it gives the flower a certain smell and taste. I also did a bit of research on the chemical compound make up of a terpene and saw quite a bit of potential in the Terp Haven branding that we could use as identifying patterns that no one else has used yet. Looking at the common factor in the terpene compound, most of them have the hexagon shape.
Saks Fifth Avenue approach Michael Beirut, one of the partners of the largest branding company in New York City, to come up with a branding scheme so people could identify their bags when people are carrying them down the street without actually having their logo on them. To keep this story short, after taking some time looking at the logo, he decided to cut the logo up in 64 pieces and use them on the bags in different patterns. This became part of the branding and has became very recognizable as a Saks Fifth Avenue bag without even having the actual logo represented on the bag. Using his idea, that you can have patterns represent your company, I had a few ideas using the terpene compound makeup.
EXECUTION
These are just a few of the many patterns that were integrated into the Terp Haven branding. Geometric shapes catch peoples eye, look classy, and with all the pattern options at or disposal, the patterns are limitless and can be used on everything from signs and stationery, to large walls in the brick and mortar dispensaries, to products like the containers and tubes that the products are sold in.
THE LOGO & VISUAL IDENTITY
This is the logo with all of its components that I thought would look good and identify the Terp Haven brand as a whole. You have the icon which perfectly represents the Terp Haven Brand. With the hexagon shape representing the chemical compound of a terpene on the outside which is also quickly identified by the human eye, to the sun rays on the inside which represent the “Haven” part of the logo, and it also looks a lot like a marijuana leaf without directly being a marijuana leaf.
Beneath that rests the Terp Haven Logotype. The font I used is called Optima, I think that the Optima font is elegant. With the ends of it flaring out to be wider than the center of each line, it almost gives the idea of a serif type font, but the fact that the line work is straight and more of a sans serif style font gives it that modern look, so its a win/win font. You maintain the classy, up scale look that a serif font has while maintaining the modern look of a sans serif style font.
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Now directly below that, is the city name which can be changed with whichever city the dispensaries are in. It gives the logo a sense of location. This is a a good selling point for apparel because people visiting from out of state always like souvenirs with the town name on them and likewise, people who live in the area always have a sense of pride in the town they live in. It is also a great identifier for signage and bags that go out the door and which products are delivered in. You see a lot of this on shopping bags in major cities also. For example Tiffany’s: Beverly Hills, or Macy’s New York City. You can also see how the patterns I mentioned earlier integrate with the packaging. Gives it a really great background feel to the logo.
