Chris Rudisill
Case study

Buddha's Bazaar

Buddha's Bazaar is a chain of five counterculture variety stores around Charlotte: glass, botanicals, vapes, and everything in between. It was the biggest brand in the Technicals and Posh roster and my longest-running one. I started on it straight out of college and stayed with it for eight years, and somewhere along the way the job grew well past "designer."

BrandBuddha's Bazaar
Parent companyTechnicals and Posh
RoleGraphic Designer
Years2015 to 2023
Scope IdentityBrand guidelinesRetail interiorsSocialEmailMascotProductsPrint
A restyled Buddha's Bazaar store with neon signs, painted brick, and a pink park bench

The restyled stores: neon, painted brick, and park-bench seating

Identity

The name was already on the drawing board when I started, but the branding was all mine. The mark is a meditating figure made from two mirrored "B" forms, set inside a lotus that also reads as a hemp leaf thanks to the strong green. That original lockup ran for about six years. I'd made it less than a year out of college, so when the time came, I went back and tightened it up. This time I wrote a full brand guidelines document to go with it.

Original Buddha's Bazaar logo: a meditating Buddha inside a green lotus
Original lockup, about 2015
Refreshed Buddha's Bazaar logo: the mirrored-B figure in a lotus
Refreshed mark, with brand guidelines
Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 1 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 2 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 3 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 4 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 5 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 6 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 7 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 8 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 9 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 10 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 11 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 12 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 13 of 14 Buddha's Bazaar brand guide, page 14 of 14
Brand guide, 2021 · 14 pages · scroll sideways

The restyle

For years the stores were styled holistic and hippy: muted greens, bamboo, natural textures. But the more we learned about who was actually walking in, the clearer it got that our customers leaned streetwear and urban culture, no matter how we dressed ourselves up. So I pitched a restyle across everything: the stores, social, and the web.

In the stores, that meant neon and LED lighting, vibrant greens with hot pink and high-contrast pops, and graffiti sprayed across the furnishings. I hung green chains as door curtains, brought in park benches for seating, and turned thrifted china cabinets into display cases with checkered shelving, neon green paint, and lighting. Old picture frames got spray-painted and filled with sassy artwork. I even mapped the brandmark across a 10x10 grid of printed ceiling tiles, which picked up a PICA Award.

A restyled room with neon signs, plants, and a traffic-light display Store floor with a pink park bench, neon signs, and painted brick
Storefront lightbox wrapped in a dense hand-drawn Buddha's Bazaar doodle illustration Neon 420 sign on a painted barrel table, with a green china cabinet behind The brandmark printed across a grid of drop-ceiling tiles, above a mannequin display
Neon, park benches, an illustrated lightbox, painted displays, and the PICA Award ceiling

Social and email

I took over most of the social media and moved it away from strictly sales and events toward memes, jokes, and generally funny stuff. Engagement went up noticeably. On email, we held an open rate around 50%, which isn't bad for a local shop. I wrote the website copy too.

I also created Toki, an anime-style mascot meant to draw in a new crowd. She opened up a run of promos, including a local cosplayer appearing as her at one of the stores.

Buddha's Bazaar Instagram feed grid
Animated stories, the Instagram feed, and animated posts, including Toki

Products

The stores sold their own merch too: illustrated rolling trays, T-shirts, grinders, lighters, and other swag. Some in-house products grew into brands of their own, like Luma and Mean Leaf.

Special edition rolling trays social post Pile of die-cut Buddha's Bazaar stickers Embroidered Buddha's Bazaar patches on a rock
Special edition rolling trays, stickers, and patches

Print

Print covered just about everything: brochures, mailers, posters, yard signs, banners, event displays, and in-store signage. The vehicle wraps and billboards were the fun ones.

Most company vans advertise with a wall of text, so for the illustrated van I went the other way. It's a full wraparound mural of a trippy, spiritual, out-of-this-world scene, meant to sell the store without saying a word. The green van harkens back to the flames on the front of an old-school hot rod, only with smoke in place of fire, over our branded green.

Find Higher Ground was another fun one: a Godzilla-sized waterpipe stomping through a city, which sets up the double entendre.

Illustrated Buddha's Bazaar van wrap, passenger side Green Buddha's Bazaar delivery van wrap
Buddha's Bazaar billboard featuring Toki Find Higher Ground roadside billboard: left at the light in 0.3 miles Buddha Bucks coupons Giant inflatable UFO outside a store for an event
Van wraps, billboards, Buddha Bucks coupons, and the UFO inflatable