Golden Garden

Branding, Logo, and Print Design

Defining the Brand

Golden Garden is one of the few small businesses operating inside The Hangout in Long Beach, CA. The shop is located in Retro Row, known for its vintage shops, wine bars, restaurants, and local relics like The Art Theater (the city’s last remaining theatre from the 1920’s). The Golden Garden is as fertile as the street it lives on: it’s not just a place to shop, it’s also a space for community and a resource that is rooted in education and encourages a deeper connection to nature through plants.

The concept of the Golden Garden is inspired by golden hour, the period of daytime shortly after sunrise or before sunset, when the sun casts a soft glowing light on to the earth. There is something about this quality of light that makes time seem to move slowly — a time for reflection (and if you sit long enough, awareness) — it is with this type of reflection that we were able to identify the brand’s core value: light.

Light is the source of life. It connects us to one another and to nature itself.

The Golden Garden is a resource for cultivation and community. They remind us that we should not view plants as mere objects to decorate with but be aware of them as living and breathing entities.

Design Strategy

I knew that light had to be a driving component in the branding and this is reflected in the final logo. The strength of the logo is in its simplicity. The light is embodied with a sun and its rays reaching outward. The horizon line becomes a visual anchor between the sun and the earth and gives dimensionionality to the mark. It brings forth the point at which the sun rises or descends, and the point where we are all connected.  

I chose to keep the lines clean and geometric to juxtapose against the organic, gritty, and imperfect nature of the plants and environment that the logo would be surrounded by. The muted color palette is derived from the earth. It is enough to stand out on its own but subtle enough to let the plants speak for themselves.

Print & Digital Flyers

Various flyers used for social media and printed in the shop.