One of our favourite things about design is its ability to completely change the way people see something. Smart, strategic branding has the power to challenge perceptions, break stereotypes and shift culture – and The Hot Cherry Club gave us the perfect opportunity to do exactly that.

As medical cannabis becomes more widely accepted in the UK, the culture surrounding it is beginning to evolve too. For many people, cannabis can be genuinely life-changing, but in the UK there’s still a huge stigma attached to it – and honestly, a lot of that comes down to the visual language surrounding cannabis accessories and cannabis branding.

We’ve all seen the typical corner shop bongs and pipes covered in skull graphics, neon colours and giant cannabis leaves. Most of it feels outdated, overly loud and designed without any real sense of taste or intention. Let’s be honest – a lot of it looks like it belongs in a teenage boy’s bedroom. The Hot Cherry Club wanted to become the complete opposite of that.

The brand curates beautifully designed smoking accessories and contemporary homeware from independent companies around the world, creating a collection of products that people would feel proud to display in their homes rather than hide away in a cupboard. If cannabis is now legal for medical use in the UK, why should the products surrounding it still feel so dated and underground?

But creating a more elevated, design-led cannabis brand wasn’t just about aesthetics. It was about helping reshape the perception of cannabis culture altogether. We wanted the identity to feel part of a wider cultural shift – one that moves cannabis away from outdated stereotypes and toward something more modern, thoughtful and socially accepted. The aim was to make the brand feel calm, aspirational and contemporary, whilst subtly nodding to the wellness and medical side of cannabis without leaning too heavily into cold, clinical design.

After sitting down with The Hot Cherry Club to discuss their goals, vision and audience, we immersed ourselves in the brands they planned to stock to fully understand the culture they wanted to build around their own identity. We also spent a huge amount of time researching how cannabis brands and smoking accessories are marketed in the US, analysing the shift toward more lifestyle-driven, design-conscious cannabis branding. This helped us understand both the audience already familiar with cannabis culture and the newer audience The Hot Cherry Club wanted to introduce into that world.

We presented two distinct brand identity directions, both designed to balance contemporary aesthetics, cultural relevance and commercial appeal. Thankfully, the client connected deeply with both concepts and found it genuinely difficult to choose between them.

This project felt important to us for reasons beyond just creating something visually satisfying. It felt like an opportunity to contribute to a wider cultural shift happening in the UK – helping redefine what cannabis culture can look, feel and communicate through thoughtful, strategic design.

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