Pentagram designs branding for CBD sparkling drink Fountain to “stand out”

Pentagram has created the brand identity for Fountain, a craft CBD sparkling-water drink, to feature curving lines modelled on the shape of the letter “f”.

Fountain is a New York City drink brand of carbonated water infused with hemp-derived CBD and all-natural flavours, including cucumber, passionfruit, tangerine and mango.

Also known as cannabidiol, CBD has grown in popularity as a legal, lighter strain of cannabis that can be used to reduce stress and anxiety, and induce calming effects.

Pentagram partner Michael Bierut said he wanted to create an identity that would stand out among the competition. According to the team, both CBD and sparkling water industries have grown significantly in recent years and are now billion-dollar industries.

“Pentagram designed a colourful brand identity for Fountain that helps it stand out in the category,” the team said.

For the logo, Pentagram chose to mimic the look of the letter “f”, taken from the drink’s name. It takes a single lower-case “f” and adds several curved lines in incremental order to it.

The design is reflected across the face of the aluminium drink to create a mirrored image.

Colours used on the cans vary depending on the flavour, hues of green and blue are used on the cucumber variety, while bright yellow and orange adorn the mango.

“The logomark is built of a linear pattern inspired by the name and organic ingredients, and can appear in a variety of colours for different flavours,” Pentagram added.

A sans serif wordmark set in Avant Garde type spells out “fountain” to accompany the logo. This font shares similar geometric forms and stroke weights with the logo. Pentagram redrew the lowercase “f” for the word so it matches the version in the logo.

In addition to the beverage cans, the geometric patterns are used on Fountain’s colourful promotional materials, packaging, advertisements and store display boards. The New York company has also added the logo and linear patterns to other objects, including coasters and apparel such as sweatshirts and tote bags.

The popularity of CBD has grown in US states in recent years as it offers a way around tight marijuana legislation. Also in New York City is the Standard Dose store, which sells a range of CBD-based products.

Pentagram is a design consultancy established in 1972. In addition to the New York office that worked on this redesign, the company operates several other offices in San Francisco, Austin, Berlin and London.

Its other branding projects include a redesign for Mastercard, which involved removing the company’s name from the logo and new branding for Yahoo that gives the Internet company a “21st-century identity”.