The Prisoner’s Apothecary
A gentle brand for a hard subject.
Artist and activist Jackie Sumell turns herbs from her Solitary Gardens into plant medicine and workshops for communities most affected by the justice system. Those gardens are planted to the wishes of incarcerated people, through letters. She needed one identity for everything: website, events, tea and tincture labels, social media and grant applications.
The name puts two worlds side by side that don’t fit: the softness of an apothecary and the hard edge of prison.
My first round leaned on the orange jumpsuit and gritty textures. It was too literal and too loud. When I went back over our conversation, I kept landing on how gentle and sacred her workshops felt: women making medicine and healing together.
I traded orange for a dusty pink and a deep garden green, and let “prison” sit quietly in the background. The result is an identity that welcomes people in first and tells the harder story second.
