COLUMBIA CARE

It’s Time Cannabis Got Some Credit

A new way to pay for a product people use everyday.

Cannabis has been misunderstood for decades. From fear-based movies to unscientific declarations, this plant couldn’t catch a break. Yet, cannabis has improved millions of people’s lives – all over the world for countless reasons. So we felt it was time to give these folks easier access to it by introducing the first credit system for cannabis. As the social stigmas surrounding cannabis pass, so should the antiquated payment methods that go along with it.

Our goal was to give cannabis some credit.

Our challenge.

Whenever you turn around, it looks like another state has legalized marijuana. But for all of its acceptance, marijuana is still mostly a “cash only” business.

That is until now.

Our approach.

Columbia Care, one of the largest providers of medical marijuana in the U.S., came to us with the idea of creating a first-of-its-kind credit card made specifically for cannabis. As you can guess, we were toked - I mean stoked - about the opportunity.

We wanted our brand to invoke the concept of marijuana but also be perceived as safe and financially-sound so we couldn’t depend on the typically cliches, language and colors associated with cannabis.

We quickly went to work exploring hundreds of names for the brand. Our team explored words from industry jargon, street slang, mythology and everything in between to develop a list of hundreds of names for the new product. Then, we narrowed our options by comparing our list against owned properties and competitors. Eventually, we landed on Tetra - short for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana. To us, it felt smart, refined and evocative.

Next came the brand mark. Again, we needed to strike a careful balance with our design. We didn’t want to create another 7 pointed leaf icon or slather green over our logo. Instead, we crafted a custom graphic element - a combination of the “T” from Tetra and the universal green plus sign used to identify cannabis dispensaries the world over.

Excited about our new brand elements, we began work on a master style guide for the brand. We selected fonts and colors, locked in our language and set down photography standards. Then we went on to show how all of these elements came together in t-shirts and hats, posters, smell-proof bags, stickers and even the card itself.