The Coola Story

Imagine getting in your car and driving for 2 hours to a city 120 miles away. That distance- 120 miles- is the measured span of some root systems of a single bamboo tree. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth. Some species of bamboo grow up to 4 feet in a 24-hour period and can regenerate to full mass in 6 months compared to 30-50 years for most hardwoods. Aside from being one of the most sustainable and eco-friendly materials on earth, bamboo has a set of mind-blowing properties that make it incredibly unique. This blog is not intended to be about bamboo. However, bamboo played an integral role in our effort to create a series of POP displays to help build and reinforce the Coola brand, which is our topic for today. At the end of our post, we’ll include some amazing facts about bamboo that might serve as encouragement for you to consider using bamboo in your next POP display project.

Coola is a California lifestyle brand focused on creating healthy sun protection products using ingredients that are natural, organic and sustainably sourced. We’ve been working with Coola for a few years now to create a line of POP displays that could reinforce the company’s commitment to sustainability while communicating the healthy aspects and premium nature of its brand. Our objective was also to create a consistent and recognizable POP display style so that customers would immediately associate the display with the Coola brand and the eco-friendly attributes of its products. Furthermore, we wanted to create a style that could have visual impact across a diverse set of retail venues- from Ulta Beauty stores to high-end spas to luxury cruise ships and resorts. As you will see in the examples below, bamboo served as the core material and central design feature of all of the displays.

The first example below is a mobile branded cart we created which was designed to be used poolside at high-end resorts. The cart featured solid, architectural-grade, 100% sustainably sourced bamboo. It included laser-cut acrylic logo branding, top tray product dividers, a cabinet with inside storage, a digitally printed front graphic and heavy-duty casters. In addition to being eco-friendly, bamboo is water resistant and naturally anti-bacterial, making it a good material choice for a poolside merchandiser.

Our second example is a floor merchandiser for the luxury spa market. We made this unit out of solid bamboo and MDF with a white melamine finish. We included a self-closing cabinet with inside shelf storage, clear acrylic shelf fencing and the same laser-cut white acrylic Coola logo.

Third, to meet Coola’s need for an inline product tray in Ulta stores, we created the two-tier solid bamboo tray shown below to hold a row of testers and a set of boxed products. We laser engraved the Coola logo for a natural look, and as with the other bamboo displays, we added a clear coat finish.

Our fourth example is a simple branded platform constructed out of bamboo with a branded back panel, front lip graphics, and a laser-cut acrylic logo.Fifth, we created a Coola-branded lotion dispenser cover which we fabricated out of bamboo and used laser engraving for the Coola logo and “Organic Sunscreen” product message.

Our sixth example is a solid bamboo sign with colored acrylic logo letters. We created the sign in the shape of a surfboard and designed it to be wall-mounted or hung.

Our final example is a tabletop sign stand designed to promote Coola’s organic suncare collection. We cut a channel in the top of the 3-ply bamboo, laser engraved the Coola logo on the front of the stand, and digitally printed the sign on PVC. This was a simple but effective secondary branding piece.

These 7 examples combine to create a consistent style and messaging platform that help to reinforce and communicate the essence of Coola’s mission and spirit of its lifestyle brand.

****

Amazing Facts About Bamboo

Over the last several years we have become increasingly concerned about the continued rapid increase in global deforestation that has led to nearly half of the world’s forests being cleared and the resultant ecological and environmental imbalances that threaten our planet and our way of life.

A few interesting and practical things to know about bamboo:

√ Strength and Durability

● Bamboo has higher tensile strength than many types of steel, higher compressive strength than many mixtures of concrete, and higher strength-to-weight ratio than graphite.

● Bamboo cannot be digested by termites due to its high silica content.

● Bamboo’s unparalleled resilience enabled it to survive the nuclear blast at Hiroshima at a point closer to ground zero than any other life form.

√ Environmental Sustainability

● Bamboo is actually a woody grass that can be re-harvested every 3 years without causing damage to the bamboo root system or surrounding environment.

● Bamboo requires low levels of water from the soil and consumes carbon dioxide exponentially faster than trees (up to 12 tons/hectare), and it releases 35% more oxygen than equivalent areas of trees.

● Scientists believe that if bamboo were planted on a mass basis, it could completely reverse the effects of global warming in just 6 years.

● Bamboo’s dense root system helps preserve soil integrity, which prevents erosion and landslides that dump nutrients into rivers and lakes where they can harm the ecosystem.