6 Hypothetical Brand Designs For Marijuana Packaging Via Surface Magazine

The culture of recreational cannabis smoking across the world has always been associated with non-commercial, hippie identities that popularised peace and equality. But with marijuana being legalised, regulated and taxed in pockets across the world, the drug is transforming into a more commercial retail commodity. Leafs by Snoop, rapper Snoop Dogg’s fine quality cannabis line, creates an entire brand around weed culture. Elements, OCB, Smoking and other big names have popularised and branded accessories such as rolling paper, and even bongs have commercial labels attached to their steep price tags.
In light of this cannabis culture shift, Spencer Bailey and Lily Wan of Surface magazine asked 12 studios to design new and innovative packaging and branding for marijuana. As Bailey explains the brief, “Create a fictionalized, aspirational marijuana brand—essentially, the future Starbucks of weed.” Each company’s dynamic imagery and design makes marijuana a highly coveted commodity with sophisticated gear. Scroll on for six product and packaging designs for cannabis culture enthusiasts:

I. Allay by Pearlfisher

This line of products focuses on the medicinal qualities of the marijuana root and uses its natural properties to relieve stress, sickness and pain. With calming, simple and clean aesthetics, Allay attempts to contrast and challenge traditional pharmaceutical design approaches. As they put it, “Taking a number of on-the-go lifestyle forms, including a wristband, an edible oil, and dissolvable oral tabs, the selection is designed to soothe and sedate by intuitively administering controlled and customized medical dosages of marijuana.”

II. Float by Public Library

Based in Los Angeles and Portland, this design studio wanted the brand name of this weed company to look and sound like the emotion they wanted to convey. “The meaning, sound, and letterforms were all elements we wanted to work together to reinforce the concept, an abstracted and visual onomatopoeia,” they explain. Playing with textures, opacity and muted colours, their design elements invoke high-school nostalgia in a grown-up remake, with plastic bags, envelopes, and paper footballs as packaging, “that were vehicles of the bathroom-stall trade.”

III. Haze by Wax Studios

“We thought it fitting to respond with humor to this brief, so we created a fake Wikipedia entry on the brand, year 2036: ‘In early 2016, Green Seed Ventures, Inc., partnered with Haze Corporation to bring a $12 million capital investment to the fledgling marijuana retailer. Only eight months later, with an unprecedented 30-second-sell-out IPO of over $9 billion, Haze became the first multi-national cannabis corporation, finishing its minute on the NYSE up 2000 percent from its initial $300 share,” this Brooklyn-based studio explains, focuses on the ‘Starbucks’ comparison in the brief. Their brand diversifies its product line beyond cannabis-centric goods to home care, affordable fashion, server software, and financial consulting.

IV. Hi by Bruce Mau Design

As this Los Angeles-based design studio describes their concept, “Hi is a monthly Hi is a monthly subscription service that aims to democratize the experience of living with cannabis in a way that demystifies the product. Customers order ‘BudBoxes’ online, indicating what kind of usage they desire—they can choose from select product lines such as Soothe, Relax, Passion, Energy, and Focus.” Their idea involves custom-made boxes containing pre-measured single servings of cannabis products, prepared to be delivered to your doorstep. The name is meant to denote a fun and bright state of mind, complete with vibrant colours, friendly topography and cheeriness.

V. Sprankles by Franklyn

With a clean and modern visual identity, the brand concept Sprankles focuses on showcasing the herbal shake. Created by New York-based design studio Franklyn, the names ‘Sprankles’ comes from ‘sprinkles’ and ‘dank’, the latter being a slang for high quality marijuana. The product is the original cannabis condiment packaged in single-servings, as they explain, “A premium blend of flower crumbles and kief, decarboxylated to optimize the medicinal or psychoactive effect, it turns anything into an herbal edible.”

VI. Water Water by Omnivore

“Water Water is marijuana-infused, organic, and has fewer calories than alcohol,” the design studio explains. The concept was born out of the chaotic working-mother lives of the designers, attempting to create a “do it all without sacrificing anything” dream. They describe their product, “Flavors in three different THC levels pair with supplements to accent the three pillars of the working mother’s life: work (“Air”—power), children (“Earth”—balance), and partner/relationship (“Fire”—love).”

Check out the remaining design concepts by six more studios at Surface Magazine.