Serviceplan’s identity for Freedom Grams highlights the shocking reality of cannabis incarceration

In the United States, there is an unjust contradiction; there are over 40,000 people in prison for cannabis possession charges despite the fact that, with an industry worth billions of dollars, cannabis is widely available for purchase. Partnering with distributor GABY Inc. and cultivation management platform AROYA, global advertising agency Serviceplan Group helped to devise and execute the brand identity for Freedom Grams. A not-for-profit platform for the cannabis industry, which rather fittingly launched on 4/20 in the state of California.

With all proceeds funding legal action – via the Last Prisoner Project – their products communicate a powerful message; each pack contains the exact amount of cannabis that someone is still in prison for. By buying and smoking the product, consumers can free someone and ‘Ignite Change,’ a message that Serviceplan artfully communicate through their eye-catching identity; leading the way with a striking orange background inspired by prison jumpsuits. 

Responsive to shape and size, the open source generative label design system adapts to meet the various specifications of growers and sellers that may use the labels for their own products. QR codes on the label provide further information, navigating users to learn about the lives and stories behind the prison sentences.

The design system is grounded in the project’s theme of liberation, as bespoke generative typography breaks free from prison bars. The typeface – in condensed and extended weights – aids the individual stories whilst maintaining a consistent look and feel. However, its development was not entirely straightforward. 

“We faced a chicken-and-egg situation,” Type Designer and Art Director, Michael Clasen tells us, explaining that the type was to be constructed using the grid of a jail cell. “And for this,” he continues,  “we had to find the best proportions and complexity of the prison grid suited for constructing a type system.” After a lot of back and forth between the type and grid, they eventually landed on a functional, responsive system. Unlike conventional typeface design though, the team utilised generative programming to create the bubble-like lettering; calling on developer Daniel Kuhnlein and his skills with vanilla javascript, WebGL2 API and GLSL.

Whilst the bulbous lettering captures attention, the supporting typefaces of Akkurat Regular, Bold and Mono communicate the deeper stories, explains Serviceplan Innovation’s Art Director, Rohil Borole. “Our goal with Freedom Grams was to bring the story and data about cannabis injustice to the public with a tone of neutrality,” he notes, “we use hard facts and keep it open to the user to form their own opinion.” For this, the neutral character and technical precision of Akkurat were the perfect fit, whilst the Mono version is used purely for numbers and data.

Serviceplan Group

Freedom Grams