The new trend for marijuana products is clear labels, lab-tested ingredients, standardized dosing and modern branding that takes its design cues from traditional consumer brands.
Pot has gone retail.
In the 1990s, nameless plastic baggies marked with an X for potency, jars adorned with pot leaves and sexually suggestive imagery were the default marketing tactics for marijuana-related products. As legalization grows, with recreational marijuana legal for adults in 18 states and Washington, D.C., and medical marijuana legal in 37 states, investment dollars have poured in — and the largest players in the industry are putting out professionalized products.
The new trend is toward well-designed packaging, clear and regulated information labels, lab-tested ingredients, standardized dosing and modern branding.
Packaging considerations are taking their design cues from traditional consumer brands. The MX live resin cartridges by Moxie, a cannabis products brand based in California, come in a plastic and metal cylinder inside a colorful, modern, zebra-print box that wouldn’t look out of place on a perfume counter at a department store.
The lineup of weed edibles from Kiva Confections uses contemporary packaging techniques. Kiva cannabis chocolate bars, with an embossed brown wrapper, could fit in at the checkout at Whole Foods. Its Petra microdose 2.5 mg THC mints come in a container that could go in a jacket pocket and have been dubbed the “Mommy Mint.” Its makers say it takes the edge off without becoming overwhelming.
Rythm cannabis brand sells an eighth of an ounce of flower, the dried green bud that is evaporated and inhaled, in a black plastic jar with a shimmering label, similar to a beauty or hair product, and can fit into a purse or gym bag.
While all consumers benefit from safer, regulated, easier-to-use products, women who are cannabis users say they particularly appreciate the evolved approach.
