No obvious marijuana references are to be used in the brand as it would not be legal to use on signage in most cities.

Zaad translates to “tree” in Gujarati (Client’s first language)

The brand should be deeply connected to and include, every part of the tree from the roots to the leaves.

The brand should focus on healing.

The visual style should be minimalistic and “Apple-Like”

The logo must translate to extremely small sizes for use on packaging.

We developed a story for the brand based around Maple Trees. (Maple Trees are the ones with the little helicopters for seeds aka Maple Keys that you can toss in the air or stick on your nose)

In our story, the physical dispensary is the tree, the gathering place, a safe place to rest and restore.

The products are the little helicopters that the customer would then bring home to… play with, enjoy, toss in the air, ect. By using the products, the customers are plating the seed of healing within themselves. We discussed offering yoga practices and other healing methods at the dispensary to nurture and water the seed.

The color palette and visual style is largely inspired by museums and healing through art, it is a bright white palette filled with artfully stylized imagery relating to every part of the tree and also how humans interact with nature in whole.

Why not use the entire tree?

• Tree logos are widely used
• Trees mean so many different things to different people, it was not the right vehicle to convey this concept and story.
• The logo needed to translate to extremely small sizes, in icon form, we wouldn’t be able to capture the full tree from the roots to the leaves along with the human connection.

Why it worked.

• The helicopter is the seed, it holds the potential for the entire tree, in fact, it IS the entire tree, just as a baby.
• The helicopter coveys human interaction, many of us remember playing with helicopters, tossing them into the air or sticking them on our nose.
• This logo translates to small sizes extremely well
• The logo creates the perfect launch pad for the brand’s story, it makes it easy to remember and communicate via word of mouth
• The helicopter logo is extremely unique. Brands utilizing the Maple Key in their logo, are few and far between, and no one is using it the way Zaad is. That simply can’t be said for tree logos.

The artful image makes, collide with nature photography to celebrate every aspect of the tree, from the roots to the leaves and everything in between, including the human connection.

The typography is designed to act as a gallery card it’s meant to be small, soft and unintrusive while remaining distinct and easy to navigate.

Soft grey oversized headlines merge with the images to utilize marketing copy when needed. Broken words in headlines are widely used and encourage the viewer to engage with the piece.

An important inclusion in the brand identity was to distinguish different types of marijuana (Indica, Sativa, CBD and, Hybrid) on the packaging and in the dispensary.

In order to maintain the visual identity, I created patterns to represent the earth’s element’s and relate them to the different types of marijuana. The soft geometric element mixes with the masks to add a unique style to the brand. Sacred geometry and nature is a combination that relates humans to nature.