Pentagram injects “youthfulness and fun” into identity for new CBD water, Fountain

Pentagram partner Michael Bierut has created a colourful visual identity for a new CBD-infused sparkling flavoured water brand called Fountain, which aims to cut though the existing market with its playfulness and energy.

CBD or cannabidiol is a non-psychoactive ingredient derived from either hemp or marijuana plants that has a range of benefits from alleviating pain to easing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Fountain, which is hemp-based, exists at the epicentre of two big trends in the healthy living sector right now, Pentagram explains. The demand for CBD-infused products is rapidly increasing, with the US market alone projected to reach $15 billion by 2025. Simultaneously the sparkling water sector is one of the fastest growing categories in the beverage industry, totting up sales to the tune of $2.45 billion in the US in 2019.

The brief to the studio was to create an identity that would stand out in its category. “We noticed that lot of other CBD-infused products tend to look clean and elegant but kind of medicinal,” Bierut tells It’s Nice That. “We wanted to inject more youthfulness and fun.” 

Pentagram created a new logo for Fountain that features a pattern of curved lines resembling a spume of water – a nod to the drink’s name. “Our project team — me, Jonny Sikov, Martin Azambuja and Abby Matousek — were a bit obsessed with the name, and particularly that initial letter F,” explains Bierut. “As a result we did a lot of purely typography studies for the packaging’s key artwork.” During the process, the team discovered that if you took a stylised lower case f and “juxtaposed it with its mirror image”, it suggested a fountain. “The stripes are meant to add motion and ‘liquid-ness’ while creating a motif that we can extend to other uses,” Bierut adds.