Nonprofit magazine in three languages

BALCA is a volunteer run organization supporting Latino voices in the cannabis industry. In their newsletter, The Voice, Latino cannabis experts write about culture, health, business and social equity.

In 2022, Design 86 was asked to design Volume 2, Issue 1. Instead of designing three separate language versions, we created one magazine combining English, Spanish and Portuguese in one layout. This saved production costs and directly addressed a diverse audience.

BALCA’s previous issues used many colors, gradients and low contrast text. In the new issue, we used BALCA’s brand colors. These helped distinguish the translations and connect the magazine to the brand.

We created a new logo for The Voice and cleaned up the original BALCA logo. We placed the existing logo inside an oval and added bold typography. BALCA later used the redesigned logo in videos and other promotional materials. We illustrated a set of cannabis leaves with multiple Latino ornaments that serve as reusable BALCA assets.

To keep the process open to the BALCA team, we designed the magazine in the free version of Canva. Working with three languages in Canva was challenging, but the team could make fast language edits.

The Voice was used at conferences, festivals and promotional events. The issue remained BALCA’s main publication through 2024.