Brand Identity · Packaging · E-commerce
Willo
A cannabis edibles brand built from nothing — identity, packaging, and a direct-to-consumer presence unified into a single, coherent voice.
Overview
- Discipline
- Brand Identity · Packaging · E-commerce
- Role
- Design & production
When Willo launched in March 2020, the legal cannabis edibles market was crowded with brands that spoke almost exclusively to experienced consumers: hard-edged aesthetics, clinical copy, and a singular focus on potency over pleasure. The brief was to build something different — a brand that could welcome newer consumers who cared about taste and quality as much as effect.
Leading creative direction alongside marketing and business strategy, Thomas conceived and executed every touchpoint from the ground up: logo, colour palette, typography, packaging system, e-commerce website, SEO, email, and social. The brand launched at the start of the pandemic — a moment when direct-to-consumer digital infrastructure was not a channel among many, it was the entire channel.
Brand & Identity
The central problem was legibility in a category that had defaulted to either clinical minimalism or aggressive recreational energy. Willo needed to read as friendly and approachable without surrendering the premium quality signal that justified its place on the shelf.
The result was an identity built around soft, rounded letterforms and flavour-led colour — a visual language that could speak credibly to someone buying a THC gummy for the first time without condescending to them. The SKU names follow the same logic: Pleasant Peach, Wonderful Watermelon — flavour-forward, sensory, genuinely inviting. The NIGHT 200mg line extends the system toward a more considered register: the same brand DNA at a higher potency.
Packaging System
Packaging was designed as a system, not a sequence of individual decisions. Each SKU had to feel unmistakably Willo while letting its flavour character breathe, so the line could expand without fragmenting the brand.
With no existing equity to trade on, the packaging carried the full weight of first impression — communicating taste, quality, and trust to a consumer who was, in many cases, buying a cannabis edible for the first time.
Digital & Growth
The e-commerce site was the entire storefront, built with SEO as a structural consideration from the start rather than a post-launch afterthought — a deliberate choice in a category where paid advertising remained largely restricted.
Awareness was built through direct channels: SMS, email, social, and contests that rewarded early customers and generated word of mouth. Each channel held the same voice and register, keeping the brand consistent from first impression through to purchase.
Gallery
Outcome
Willo grew to over $50,000 in monthly sales — built with no legacy brand, few conventional advertising channels, and a launch that landed in the same month a global pandemic began.