Your Friendly Neighborhood CPG

Is this weed or banana chips?

Early entrants in the cannabis space targeted connoisseurs and folks who knew what they were looking for. Everything became expensive and premium-looking—even a little fussy. This leaves a whole lot of people who might be “weed curious” but do not know where to begin, let alone the difference between an indica or a sativa.

Driven primarily by edibles, this approach does a great job of speaking to the newcomers. Eschewing the snooty and upscale for the bright and poppy, this positioning is, above all else, friendly and non-intimidating. This visual trend positions weed like any other unassuming Consumer Packaged Good (CPG) you’d find in your local grocery store. It will be (to borrow a craft beer term) sessionable and not smack of pretentious weed branding (and the stigma it can carry).

Health & Wellness

Spa Day

This visual trend positions weed as an escape, or a healthy lifestyle activity and often touts benefits including mindfulness and mental well being. This messaging is captured through minimal and calming colors, soft-touch packaging and metaphorical brand and product names. Expect products in the category to resemble—and in some cases, actually be—personal cosmetic care items like lotion, lip balm and cleansing scrubs.

Couture Cannabis

For the discerning stoner

This trend positions cannabis as an expensive lifestyle purchase. It is aspirational and places an emphasis on well-designed, luxe packaging and an almost burlesque unboxing experience. Think gold and bronze, foil seals, stark fields of white and black, minimal typography, and an overall exclusive air. This is for those who own custom chef knives, beautiful watches, and drink fine wine (that is, if they still drink alcohol).

Scientific & Lab Tested 

Safe and Cutting Edge

This aesthetic speaks to cleanliness, safety and quality, with a singular focus on the medicinal applications of cannabis. If an edible claims to be 10mg, then each and every serving will be 10mg—no more, no less. Expect to see white space, clean sans serif typography and infographics that outline different physical effects and benefits. Akin to vitamin or medication packaging, this look brings us one step closer to seeing cannabis products on shelves in pharmaceutical aisles. Fingers crossed.

Rough & Tumble

Tough guys only

Bold, all-caps typography paired with high-contrast, no-nonsense imagery, this aesthetic (common in men’s grooming products and bourbon packaging) reflects our culture’s persistent obsession with all things “masculine.” Mostly a lifestyle play, this look positions weed as the antihero choice amongst a sea of soft, friendly, outdoorsy weed brands.

Vintage Dope
Your Dad’s Weed

Companies who employ this aesthetic are leaning on nostalgia and reverence to cut through a cluttered market. We suppose that by winding back the clock, we are connecting with something that is more “authentic” or original—in a cultural sense, we’re grasping for the “roots” of cannabis as a social phenomenon. Think lo-fi/analog typography, grainy polaroids, and simple, limited color palettes.

Crunchy & Granola

Weed’s stock in trade

This aesthetic is kissing cousins to the easy riding, jam band-loving look and feel that defined the counter cultural movement of the 1960s. And whether you like it or not, to a certain extent, it will NEVER go away. Heavy on muted color palettes and kraft paper, it’s an outdoorsy, eco-conscious aesthetic aimed directly at those who choose to opt-outside and aligns with a bevy of outdoorsy activities from camping and hiking, to climbing, floating and fishing. Consider this the grown-up version of Baby Boomer folksy earthy reconnection with nature.

Small Batch & Artisan

Heirloom this. Artisan that.

Similar to the craft beer beer industry or the artisan food space (chocolate, coffee, urban agriculture, etc.), this aesthetic romanticizes the provenance of a product by telling a unique origin story. The result looks less like an amalgamated corporate product and more like a gift packaged with love and care, often featuring hand-written elements like signatures and lot numbers, makers marks, stamps, ribbons and seals.

“This is an heirloom indica strain that was lovingly cultivated by our small group of blind farmers.” “This pipe was hand blown by an ancient coven of secretive Himalayan sculptors using a kiln from the 1500’s.” Mmmm, sign me up.

Name Brand

Willie / Snoop / Marley

This trend follows some of the oldest advertising tricks in the book. Find a celebrity, apply their name and/or likeness to a product, profit! Cynicism aside, this is an effective way for longtime proponents of weed to lend their name to the industry, and we’ve seen everyone from old vanguards like Willie, Snoop, Tommy Chong and Cypress Hill to newer folks like Freddie Gibbs and the Trailer Park Boys (RIP Mr. Lahey) jump into the space.

Whether you’re bullish on this trend or roll your eyes at it, celebrity endorsements do work. So strap in and watch as the next Fortnite phenom releases their proprietary line of edibles over the next few years. What a time to be alive.

Your Annoying Cousin

Shit Posting Made Manifest

Earlier when I said the industry had moved beyond iffy branding into a golden age of packaging design… I should’ve said that most of the industry has made this shift. For every beautifully branded edible company, there are ten weed brands that look like gas station condoms—fun in an unrestrained sort of way, but garish, cartoonish, and downright ugly. And much like those gas station condoms, they can be a gamble. Is it really 20mg per skull-shaped gummy? Will I get waaay too high, or not even catch a buzz? With so many reliable brands on the market it’s best not to chance it.