Long gone are the days when people used to buy cannabis in brown soulless bags that had no kind of style and no distinction or uniqueness associated with it. With legalization happening in various major cities the stigma associated with cannabis use has slowly been dissipating and inevitably, more and more people are embracing the alternative benefits that are associated with the use of cannabis.
This young industry is experiencing exponential growth and entrepreneurs worth their salt are realizing that the target market has drastically changed. It’s no longer just teens and college students, it now incorporates people from all income levels, genders, ages, and races, and it’s absolutely important that the needs of this emerging market get served.
The shift in the type of individuals consuming cannabis has created a glaring need to invest in proper packaging. Customer experience has become a major facet in determining whether a business retains customers in the long run or will keep on spending resources in customer acquisition throughout its business life cycle. Investing in well-designed packaging material will go a long way in ensuring that your customers feel comfortable purchasing your products and that they feel that there was some thought that was put into it.
Cannabis Packaging and Branding Laws
The laws governing the packaging of cannabis vary from state to state and it’s essential that you conduct extensive research before embarking in any creative process that you may eventually be unable to implement. Below are some regulations that cut across the different states that will give you a glimpse of what to consider before engaging in any creative branding process.
1. The packaging must be opaque, resealable, and child-resistant. A child under the age of 5 should have a considerably difficult time trying to open the packaging but it should be simple enough for an adult to obtain its contents.
2. In addition to being child-resistant, it is very important that the appearance of the package that is selected minimizes its appeal to children and that the only image depicted is the business logo of the business.
3. The labeling on the package must be no less than 1/16 inch in size and at a minimum, it should contain the cannabinoid profile of the cannabis contained within the product, including the THC level; directions of use of the product and the recommended dosage.
4. In the naming of the product any name that is identical to, or confusingly similar to, the name of an existing non-cannabis product is disallowed. There are examples of lawsuits that have been filed in recent times by organizations such as Girl Scouts of America as they believed a few cannabis-related brands were infringing on their trademarks. This is probably one law that has to be followed to the letter.
There are more varied laws that govern each different state but ensuring that you start by ensuring that these four are followed to the letter will ensure that you end up with a legally conforming and attractive packaging that might lead to increased sales for you as an entrepreneur.
Outstanding Cannabis Branding Designs
The brands that have been outlined here have done the legal groundwork that was necessary and gone the extra mile to bring to life exciting designs that have kept their customers intrigued and have given their brands the much-needed authenticity in this young and rapidly growing industry.
When we speak of cannabis, the most obvious image that automatically comes to mind is the famous leaf. Quite honestly if there has ever been an overused visual, then that leaf must definitely be it. It’s appropriate because it’s easily identifiable and passes the message across immediately, but for an entrepreneur who is trying to carve out their niche and ensure that in a sea of individuals providing almost similar services to themselves, a thought-provoking, aesthetically pleasing logo that ensures that the message is passed across clearly and that isn’t all too common is a great starting point.
The brands that we will share here have in a way achieved that and we hope that reading about them gives you the necessary inspiration to work on your own.
48North
Is a customer-centric, innovative, and high-quality cannabis brand focused on sustainability? It is well known for its accessible pricing model for high-quality products. To ensure memorability to their customers, 48North settled on a pretty neat type of logo.
Their logo style choice is contemporary and minimalist. Very clean with earthy tones to complement their sustainability strategy. The graphics that they have implemented consist of blocks of bright colors and illustrated lines of art, with their font of choice being modern san serif in bold and thin.
Their logo is quite literally figure 48 with a capital N and in other instances, it’s expressed as the number written out in words and the word North written out in full. It appeals to the target market that expects innovation from them.
Beboe
The name itself oozes sophistication and those are the words that the brand chooses to be identified with. It is actually the name of the grandmother to the owner of the establishment. Their intention is to provide products that are sleek and make their targeted customers feel that they are experiencing sophistication, whatever that may be to them.
The packaging is stylish and fancy adorned in gold, pink and white colors. The graphic design that has been used in this design is new age style symbolism that has been complemented by bold geometric san serif font. The overall finished logotype comes out enriched with lines enclosing it and this we believe has been done to ensure that there is clear brand recognition that is established, just from one’s interaction with the logo.
Defonce
This brand is known for producing the world’s finest edibles most especially in the line of chocolates. The chocolates that they make are shaped in fun geometric shapes and the genius thing that the brand has done is that they have implemented the same concept on their logo.
The colors that they have gone for are specifically gold, black and white and as mentioned before, the graphics are geometric patterns which give a contemporary feel that evokes a feeling of playfulness.
Their choice of style for writing is cursive which brings about a beautiful pattern that is especially beautiful to the eye.
The choices that it has made in the creation of its logo as a capitalized wordmark with all of the above-described futures have enabled it to cement its identity as a frontrunner in pushing the envelope in design within the cannabis industry.
Dreamland
Dreamland like Defonce makes cannabis-infused chocolates. This brand is really big on fun, and as a result, their graphics and choice of color depict this aura. They have chosen lively graphics that are used to differentiate the flavors of the chocolates that they produce, and they employ rich pastel colors that are complemented by quirky photography.
Their design concept is meant to function kind of like an Alice in Wonderland story where the packaging as well as the transport of the content you to another dimension.
When you think of Dreamland, you’re thinking bold, playful, fun, and cheerful and this appeals to a specific target, so it’s safe to say that they are right on spot with their creativity.
Dosist
That name sounds like something right out of the future. Those are the vibes that its design has embraced. Their mantra is targeted formulas and precise dosage and boy do they get that right with their design.
Their design is a double triangle on a white base, very precise if you ask me. The complementing colors are matte, and the font is written in bold and regular san serif. The overall outlook comes out as very contemporary and stylish and dare I say futuristic.
If you’ve seen a lot of futuristic films, you’ll note that they are big on minimalism, lots of white but have the ability to depict boldness at the very same time. That’s what Dosist displays in its design. For those people that want to feel powerful yet uncomplicated, this type of design should appeal to them in more ways than one.
Ionic
This right here, the word Ionic, sounds like a concept, kind of like the way most men’s products are labeled. They are in the business of crafting the finest small-batch cannabis oils and cannabis concentrates in the world. Their whole idea is to make your social experiences special and unforgettable, exactly how men’s perfumes promise to make men feel.
Their logo is a two-dot design. One dot is gold-filled while the second dot looks like a ring, still drawn in gold color. The color scheme is bold incorporating red and black to complement the gold of the dots and without a doubt, the concept demands your attention at first glance. It’s very hard to miss.
To reiterate how bold their design is, there are no other graphics in use and the preferred fonts are a mixture of capitalized and standard san serif. The resulting look is simplistic and clean.
Wyld
Prides itself as the leader in the production of cannabis edibles. They have such a wide variety of gummies to select from. Their logo is grey antlers with the word WYLD right in between them, how swell, right? Here is where it gets better, with every flavor of gummies that is on offer, the logo is accompanied by a realistic depiction of that particular flavor.
The uniqueness of their packaging and design gives it memorability and the realisticness of the graphics allows the users to feel like this is something that feels familiar to me, and familiarness brings about the concept of safety, and thus have people more inclined to try out this brand in comparison to others that may feel very new.
For those looking for a thrill, the antlers as the logo create curiosity and you just want to try and see what all this antler business is about. Wyld has been able to accurately find the sweet spot by their ability to create the occurrence of two opposing emotions in their customers through the clever design of their branding. You want new, you got it, you want old and familiar, you still got it.
Tokyo Smoke
If their website is anything to go by, Tokyo smoke has absolutely embraced the future in their branding. The arrangement, the choice of icons, everything has a modern feel and is also abstract to a certain extent. They specialize in selling cannabis accessories that are guaranteed to help their users achieve an elevated level of experience while consuming their cannabis.
They have employed gimmicks that have incorporated the use of light, reflection and color applied in 3D to create distinct and exquisite graphics that have helped create a unique identity for them in the market.
The texture of the colors that are in use can only be described as soft and feminine. This brand has succeeded in combining modern features and femininity in its identity.
Lowell Herb Co
Lowell Herb is well known for selling packs of pre-rolled joints which they authenticate as being all-natural. This brand is very straightforward in its branding, the selected packaging resembles cigars and exudes classic vibes on the very first outlook.
The colors that it has selected to represent itself are those that have been long considered vintage. It incorporates natural browns, charcoal, and white and the blend of these colors on the selected packaging material brings about an expensive look. The kind that can easily convince you to spend your earned money because you’re convinced that whatever product you’ll get is worth spending a lot of money on.
Without a doubt there’s definitely a masculine vibe that you can pick up from this brand’s choice of style and design and it feels almost like they are trying to attract a particular type of niche market. The logo is a bull dressed in official attire, holding a farming tool, against the background of a farm (most likely a cannabis farm), then the name Lowell Herb Co surrounds the said photo, a very straight forward simple, and authentic logo, designed for those that already know and understand the value of this brand.
We hope our deep dive into the thought process and the designs selected by these front runners have sufficed to show you that there are many ways to represent cannabis other than the usual leaf and that there are many that have already pushed the envelope in terms of design.
As you visit a Seattle dispensary be on the lookout for more elaborate, thought-provoking designs and we expect that the creativity in this industry will continue scaling unimaginable heights, cannabis helps in divergent thinking anyway, so that should be right up in the alley of these entrepreneurs.