A New Audience
for Cannabis
CLIENT / RISE CANNABIS
The only constant in the cannabis market is change. Laws evolve constantly and differ from state to state, with brands entering the landscape frequently. RISE came to us for a partner who could rebrand their business and rebuild their website to evolve with that market. We took an untraditional approach: creating an identity for them that grew alongside culture, but kept a firm strategic foundation in what we felt was the forgotten culture among cannabis brands: that of consumers who live in the heartland.
UPLIFTING A BRAND
To anchor this evolving design system, we designed a new logo for RISE that felt modern but trustworthy: solid, unwavering type with a clear background that referenced transparency and openness—and a structural grounding shape that gave it a feeling of stability and strength.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PLANTS
The RISE website became a key tool for connecting with the culture of this untapped market. Using documentary-style photography, we developed a look that focused on the human side of cannabis, and reflected the beauty our audience saw in the everyday world. Paired with a clean, informative design, we helped to demystify cannabis and invite an audience that had long felt like outsiders.
In messaging we introduced a new idea of what Cannabis is in the world: changing the culture of a conversation for a modern medicinal and post-legalization world. RISE would champion Cannabis as not just fun, but a freedom.
ADS THAT ADAPTED
Layouts across advertising channels sought to give a new vision of what cannabis culture could be: using open letterforms, a vibrant but calming palette, and more documentary realism to present an invitation that was positive, free, and hopeful.
As time went on, this design could evolve and expand to match different parts of culture: taking on the weatherED feel of classic americana, or the clean, modern look of a new city. But however RISE wanted to experiment with the brand and adapt to culture, the heart of it always remained the same: people.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Finally, we gave RISE tools to bring the brand’s full variety of the brand to life themselves. We developed social templates diverse and flexible enough to display all dimensions of the brand as it grew, so that RISE could tell their own story in their own words.
