Timber Cannabis Co.
From a Blank Page to Nine Stores Across Michigan
The SERVICES
Naming · Brand Strategy · Visual Identity · Product System Design · Environmental Design · Web · Social Media · Collateral · Merchandise
The TEAM
Produced in partnership with Hybrid Marketing Co.
Aaron Rosenbluth – Content Director
INDUSTRY
Cannabis Retail (Michigan)
The STORY
Timber came to us with nothing. No name, no brand, no identity. They were a startup heading into Michigan’s newly legal market with their first location in Muskegon and big plans across the state. The founders were diehard Phish fans who wanted a name with a subtle nod to the band, an IYKYK Easter egg rather than an obvious reference. And no cliche cannabis words. Everything else was open, which is the most fun a brand strategist ever gets to have.
The Challenge
A blank page is freedom and pressure in the same breath. The name had to feel rooted in Michigan and the Midwest without boxing the brand in as it expanded. It had to read as a lifestyle brand, not a dispensary. And it had to work in rural communities while still being cool enough to win younger, more fashion-forward markets.
MY CONTRIBUTION
I led the naming and brand strategy and directed the full identity through the first three store openings. This was strategy-first work from the very first session, grounded in real research into Muskegon and the broader Midwest before a single visual decision got made.
The Work
The naming process started with small brainstorms and deep regional research, and Timber emerged as the clear winner for reasons that stack up beautifully. The lumber industry’s deep roots in the Midwest. The little-known history that lumber interests helped drive cannabis prohibition because they feared hemp as a competitor. Trees as old slang for cannabis. The great outdoors and the character of Midwest communities. The Hackberry tree, a native Midwest species and botanical relative of cannabis, which gave us a whole environmental design language. And a quiet Phish nod through the lyric about being suspended in the trees. The founders chose it before we finished the presentation.
The logo is a bold, chiseled serif with sharp elements that echo the curve of an axe blade. The T carries a custom notch, a wedge taken out of a tree, so it works as a standalone mark and brand shorthand. A secondary circular lockup references a crosscut piece of lumber, with the inner rings forming the Flower of Life in a sacred-geometry style.
From there I built an effect-based product system, with custom sacred-geometry iconography that helps customers and budtenders align products to goals: Enlightened, Active, Refreshed, Grounded, Tranquil. The palette runs olive green, copper, night navy, and steel gray. Copper does a lot of quiet work here, because it carries real Midwest significance and is regarded as a healing metal, which mirrors the healing associations of cannabis. We brought that history to life through environmental design built around the Hackberry tree, with live-edge tables, crosscut wood walls, and spalted hackberry accents. As Timber expands, each location can bring in its own native regional trees and carry its own environmental story.
The Results
Timber launched across three Michigan locations and found clear market acceptance right away. Today Timber Cannabis Co. operates nine stores across Michigan. Nine locations from a name on a whiteboard. The system was built to keep scaling, and it has.
