03 company philosophy about our journey essences
09 core brand signature identity proportion restrictions colors font
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applications stationery packaging merchandise
33 interactive app mobile icon social media
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environmental team apparel distribution center signage vehicles
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brand
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about
mission It is our mission to enhance the world around us by developing products that are not only eco-friendly, but that spur action towards a better tomorrow. We are here to beautify the world, and save it all at the same time. We aim to grow a better tomorrow, give to those who need it, and gain a more beautiful, loving world.
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our journey blossum is founded on roots sown deep in a passion for saving our planet, helping others, and leaving spaces more beautiful than we left them. We believe in having a positive zest for life. We don’t beat around the bush. We take action. There is no problem too large that we can’t solve through innovation, collaboration, and honesty. Our business was set into motion when we visited Uganda in 2012 as apart of a volunteer opportunity. We were moved and impassioned after seeing first hand how their culture struggles to find clean drinking water. When we got back we started to do research. What we found was horrendous. We knew the planet was dying, we knew conditions in third world countries were brutal, but we didn’t
know to what extent. After many failed attempts to raise money for these causes, we found that most people don’t know where their funds are going. We needed to raise the stakes, branch off on our own, and make donating the ultimate experience. What if you could track exactly where your money is going, and who it is helping? What if you could share your good deeds with your friends with the click of a button? Even better than that, what happens if in return for your donation you get something tangible, useful, and eco-friendly in return? Well, two years later, and here we are. Living out our dream to create a more healthy, compassionate, beautiful world. You could even say that we’ve...blossumed.
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humanitarian
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authentic
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eco-friendly
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trustworthy
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core brand signature Blossum is a moral company that operates and maintains a transparent and honest relationship with it’s costumers. In order to maintain this relationship with our costumers, our brandmark must maintain a cohesive, consistent look. Our primary logo contains our blossum wordmark accompanied by it’s signature leaf/power graphic. This primary mark should always be used at 100% opacity, in our signature colors: blossum orange, sprout green, and eco-amber.
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primary brandmark
primary reversed
primary black and white
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identity
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x .75x 6.5x
size matters Our brandmark is the primary face of our company. It’s one of the most important ways that people will be able to distinguish us from our competition. Because of that reason, our signature must always maintain these proportions in order to stay consistent.
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no no no no no no no no no don’t do it Do not stretch the brand mark. Do not fill, modify, or omit colors from the leaf. Do no remove the graphic from inside of the brandmark. Don’t use the brandmark without the graphic. Do not modify the angle or aspects of the brandmark in any way. Do not use the graphic without the brand-
mark. Just don’t do it, okay. Want to change it? Don’t. Stretching, resizing, or eliminating elements from the brandmark are absolutely prohibited. Colors are not allowed to be substituted in the primary brandmark. Overlays must stay true to their original colors.
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color
hue, who? While proportion and orientation play a big part in consistency, color is large part of what keeps our brand cohesive. At blossum we utilize two primary colors and three secondary colors. Ultimately, these colors should be used in relation to the Pantone Color Matching System- the codes are listed on this page.
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our mixes blossum orange
sprout green
rgb 245 181 79 cmyk 0 23 86 0 hex f5b54f
rgb 179 201 73 cmyk 34 0 88 0 hex b3c949
eco amber rgb 202 93 49 cmyk 3 63 88 8 hex ca5d31
eco-ink Whether in print or web the primary blossum brand mark should always be shown using our color mixes. It should always be shown at 100% opacity. Our eco-friendly experts at blossum used special mixes to create the most organic inks. Reducing our carbon footprint is at the core of our brand. If it isn’t helping the planet we shouldn’t be using it. Not only is using other
inks against our brand standards, but it is against our morals as a company. By partnering with ink forest our vegetable based inks reduce our emissions . They are formulated for 2 to 15 percent VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), instead of regular inks that generally contain 35 percent. These mixes will maintain the same for both print and web based media.
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trust charcol rgb 66 83 82 cmyk 85 30 52 50 hex 425352
clay beige rgb 215 194 159 cmyk 16 21 39 0 hex d6c19f
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grayscale it’s gray-t The blossum brand mark should always maintain visual depth, and should never be used in 100% black. Of course, you would naturally have some questions about this. Please refer to the values on this page when using the primary brandmark in black and white.
rgb 212 212 213 cmyk 16 12 12 0 hex d3d4d4
rgb 51 51 51 cmyk 70 63 62 58 hex 323333
rgb 144 142 143 cmyk 46 39 38 3 hex 8f8d8e
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calculations If the tonal background is above 20% the primary black and white logo should be used with a 10% lighter leaf overlay. If the background is above 50% then the reversed logo must be used, but with a 20% darker leaf overlay. If the tonal background reaches 60% then continue to use the primary reversed logo.
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grow wi grow w 19
give for them gain for you At blossum we don’t believe in rules. We believe in getting things done. We believe in making an impact. It’s hard to get things done when you follow the same rules that have been followed for years. Sometimes you need to think outside the pot. So we don’t do capitalization. We don’t do strict punctuation in our headers. We don’t do all caps. It’s our philosophy that we don’t need to yell at anyone, we don’t need to be demanding. That’s not how you inspire change.
ith us with us filson soft light
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comfortaa bold
filson pro light open sans regular
fonts We may not believe in the rules of normal punctuation and capitalization, but we do have a few rules for our brand. Comfortaa bold is to be used for all large sign situations. Vehicles, bill boards, large interior spaces, supra headers in print and web. Filson soft light is our main header font and will be used for all web based, print, and smaller design elements. Filson pro light is to be used as a sub-header in the same situations as it’s header font. Open sans regular is our body copy font.
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applications
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stationery business cards Business cards can be the first impression that we make on people. It’s important that the impression we make emulates our company and brand. The front of our blossum business card sports our seedling graphics, and our main mission. These cards are not to be altered in any way, and only the secondary logo should appear on the card.
letter head In the quest to make our business more eco-friendly it is our hope to be 100% waste free. Printing off less paper is less wasteful. This letter head was specifically designed to emulate our social media icon, because it will be used mostly in web based interactions.
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envelopes Our envelopes closely relate to our business cards. This allows for cohesiveness. Having an envelope that resembles our business card will make us more recognizable to our customers. The blossum envelope is not to be altered.
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packaging
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materials Plant packaging is extremely wasteful. Even in more recent designs where they use decomposable materials as a base, they still use some sort of plastic to stack the plants so they don’t damage them. blossum’s innovative design is a stackable, decomposable, virtually waste free form of packaging and distributing plants. We eliminate waste buy using minimal dyes on our planters, and making sure they are made out of eco-friendly material. The shape of our planters is also extremely important. From the side view they appear to just be round containers. However, the underside of the container is beveled in to allow
for stacking without damaging the buds of the plants. This eliminates the need for more materials to keep the plants separate. Also, because we use 100% compostable materials for our planters you can simply plant the entire container into the ground, or your own pot. The overall design of our planters it to remain simple and clean. Our QR code and primary brandmark will always appear on our packaging and containers. No other patterns or inks will be used in order to eliminate waste and processing costs.
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innovative shipping Due to the light, durable, eco-friendly nature of our blossum planters we are able to ship our product in biodegradable boxes. This is a heavier duty cardboard that more easily resists water leaks and “sogginess�. Using these boxes instead of crates or other plastic holders highly reduces our footprint as a company. Our boxes for large shipments come in two size variations and are color coded. Both the inside color, and tinted custom blossum packaging tape help our distributors have a clear idea of what they are shipping. All of our boxes must include the primary form of our brandmark.
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merchandise saving the planet? it’s stylin’
Our merchandise should be a direct reflection of our company. When customers wear our apparel or use our mesh bags they are advertising for us. For this reason our merchandise must celebrate the life and spirit of blossum. Vibrant colors, comfortable and durable fabrics, zero waste packaging are all components of our totally stylin’ merchandise. All of these items must be on natural organic fabrics, and printed with our special blossum eco-ink.
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advertisements grow our client base
Our advertisements should be bright, colorful, and use photography and vector graphics together whenever possible. They should be simple. The less words more content. The viewer should not be overwhelmed by content and graphics, yet they should be given enough to be intrigued and interested in our business. Overlays and transparencies are not required, but they are highly suggested. Whenever possible our advertisements should be web based, media, posters, or flyers. If they are printed they should be small in size and self mailing to reduce the amount of paper being used. Also, as mentioned before our vegetable based, eco friendly inks should always be used in print.
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more assets blossum’s app is available both on android and apple products. The QR code that comes on the plant can be scanned into the app, and information on your plant and your donation will automatically be downloaded into the settings.
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interactive
app-solutely intuitive Our app, in reality, is our company. Without our app we are just another group of people selling flowers. Our app allows customers to track their donations, as well as the life of their plant. They have an entire history of where there money went, and will continue to receive push notifications and messages about who/what their money has helped. They also have an adaptable time line that allows them to add and log their plants lives, and look for resources if their plant isn’t doing well.
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social media
iconic This is blossum’s social media icon. It is allowed to be transformed from square to circle, but the proportions, color, and angle must remain the same. Absolutely no other alteration of our social media icon is allowed.
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team apparel be rad, look rad At blossum we pride ourselves on functionality. Our organic knit staff t-shirt is comfortable and organic. A good shirt for getting work done, and just incase you’re dealing with dirt and get a little messy–every staff member is equipped with a functional and durable apron. This apron contains two pockets and is made out of a wearable waterproof stain resistant material. All employees must wear their t-shirt, and name tag at all times. Also, because we value our employees and their comfort their allowed to wear their favorite long pants to work. Blue or black jeans are perfectly acceptable as long they don’t have any holes in them.
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distribution
warehouse–reinvented In order to reduce our emissions and live for a cleaner future, blossum has reinvented the warehouse. Instead of having one larger super center for our business to stem from, we have multiple smaller centers all around the country. This allows for fresher product, and our trucks can put on less miles which means cutting down on gas emissions. Our warehouses are eco friendly certified. With both solar panels, a roof bog to help filter water, and large windows to cut down on electricity usage we have truly turned the original “warehouse� upside-down.
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the pollinator
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ready, set, grow Our van should be the mobile spirit and embodiment of our company. It is vibrant and spurs interest in our company wherever it goes. The use of our signature blossum colors splashed into one of our signature patterns is one of the ways our brand conveys our
message. Our blossum pollinators are as eco-friendly as we can make them. We partnered with Tesla to create these efficient energy savers, and we having charging stations for our electric semi freight trucks at every blossum warehouse across the country.
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credits blossum would like to thank unsplash, and it’s talented following of photographers for the photos used in this book.