EMBER GARDENS

A crafted brand world spanning identity, interiors, environment, and experience

Ember Gardens needed a brand that reflected the precision of their grow process and the sophistication of their product. I created a visual identity system rooted in clarity and restraint, with a strong typographic foundation and a flexible design structure that works seamlessly across digital, packaging, and retail environments. The result is a brand that feels modern, confident, and crafted with intention.

The Challenge:

Ember Gardens needed a complete brand world that would differentiate them in one of the most competitive, highly regulated categories: cannabis retail. Their goal was to create a warm, premium, lifestyle-driven identity that communicated quality, craft, and trust—without falling into common cannabis clichés.

The brand had to work across cultivation, retail, packaging cues, interiors, digital environments, and third-party retail systems.

My Role:

I created the full experiential brand universe for Ember Gardens. My work shaped how the brand looks, feels, sounds, and behaves across every touchpoint in the cannabis customer journey:

  • Logo and visual identity system

  • Color, texture, typography, and design language

  • Full voice + tone development

  • Packaging cues and lifestyle merchandising direction

  • In-store storytelling, environmental graphics, and interior branding

  • Photography direction and lifestyle narrative

  • Brand system documentation and implementation guidelines

  • UX and Digital Design / Development oversight and direction

View the ember Gardens Website

“Gary and I have worked together on a huge scope of different projects from Logo designs to digital content production. There were times I was hired by Gary or one of his companies, and other times I have hired Gary and his services. All of those times he stands out to me as an unbelievably creative, versatile, and thoughtful partner on any project. He brings to the table purposeful vision with a plan to get there, and is a valuable resource across every step of the process. Always calm, composed, and smiling, Gary has been a pleasure to work with across many types of endeavors. I will never hesitate to bring Gary into any project and I look forward to the next time we get to work together.”

Dan Gillan - Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer, Ember Gardens

Cannabis-Specific Branding Approach:

The cannabis industry presents unique design challenges:

  • Heavy regulation

  • Consistency across packaging, labeling, and retail displays

  • Third-party digital platforms (Dutchie)

  • Multi-environment brand behavior (grow + retail + digital)

  • Need for trust and clarity in a still-emerging category

My approach solved these challenges by building Ember Gardens as a warm, authentic lifestyle cannabis brand that expresses:

  • quality and craft,

  • comfort and ritual,

  • elevated experience,

  • approachability,

  • narrative depth, and

  • human connection.

I designed the cannabis retail experience to feel grounded, cinematic, and expressive — not clinical, not stereotypical, not trendy-for-the-sake-of-it.

Environmental + Interior Experience:

I guided the experiential environment by defining:

  • Warm natural materials

  • Wall graphics + atmosphere storytelling

  • Interior flows + visual rhythm

  • Display systems and merchandising cues

  • Lighting + tone to support product storytelling

The result is a cannabis retail experience that feels curated, welcoming, and emotionally resonant.

Digital + Third-Party System Integration:
Most cannabis retail operations rely on third-party platforms (like Dutchie) for:

  • Menus

  • Kiosk displays

  • Online ordering

  • Inventory integration

I did not design the Dutchie system or their website.
Instead, I built the Ember Gardens brand framework that implementation partners used to apply the identity across:

  • Dutchie menu environments

  • In-store digital displays

  • Online ordering visuals

  • Retail signage + informational graphics

This ensured the brand stayed consistent even inside regulated, template-based digital systems.

The Approach:

Ember Gardens was designed as an experiential brand world, not a logo drop.
It is cohesive across:

  • retail

  • cultivation

  • packaging cues

  • interiors

  • digital presence

  • environmental storytelling

It expresses a premium cannabis experience rooted in warmth, authenticity, and elevated craft.

Outcomes:

  • A distinctive, emotionally grounded cannabis brand that stands out in a saturated market

  • A unified experience across interior, packaging cues, photography, and Dutchie-based digital platforms

  • A scalable identity system adaptable to future locations or expansions

  • A lifestyle-driven cannabis presence that feels real, warm, and human

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