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Imagine Pot Was Legal. How Would You Brand It?

BY Cliff KuangThu Jul 30, 2009 at 6:45 AM
Print Magazine asked four designers to imagine what a legal pot package might look like. Here's what they produced.

Woeful state budgets have relit the long-burning debate about pot legalization---couldn't California rescue itself by making weed legal, then taxing it? Meanwhile, more than 40% of Americans now favor legalization--which is the highest portion since the 1980s; Nate Silver, at FiveThirtyEight, has watched the trends and estimates that popular support will become overwhelming in 15 years time.

So Print, the hoary graphic-design magazine, posed a challenge to four top designers: How should the package of legal weed actually look? Each of them took a radically different approach.

Lust, a graphic design practice in Amsterdam, tackled the controversy of the product head-on---albeit in a very dry, very arch manner. They opted to cover the package in infographics about weed, and its effects--which they claim would create an anti-brand brand, and also, presumably, turn the product into something more neutral than the demon weed. The only stoner reference is the Jamaican & Rastafarian color themse:





The New York office of Base worked with its branches in Europe, to create a goofy nod towards weed's illegal past, with containers made from repurposed packaging from other brands--in other words, a reference to the stash boxes ubitquitous in dorm rooms all over the country:



Strømme Throndsen, an Olso firm that won the 2009 Award for Design Excellence for its flour packaging, produced the design strategy most likely to make it to the real world: Their packaging concept is modular, with a big box containing smaller packages, so that the user need only take whatever they need with them. Inside, the invididual cases could be branded to suit different demographics--which, by the looks of it, would include a red-eyed Apple designer and Paris Hilton:







The Heads of State, a Philadelphia duo comprising Jason Kernevich and Dustin Summers, wanted to stick with the illicit connotations of the drug--pointing out that to eliminate that bad-boy rep is to do a disservice to the product (and it's various brand connotations). So they kept the whole "bag of weed" concept, and branded the various strains with goofy stickers: The Heads of State, a Philadelphia duo comprising Jason Kernevich and Dustin Summers, wanted to stick with the illicit connotations of the drug--pointing out that to eliminate that bad-boy rep is to do a disservice to the product (and it's various brand connotations). So they kept the whole "bag of weed" concept, and branded the various strains with goofy stickers:

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Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. -H. Bergson

osirus2020

Didn't read most of the article, but the black and green pouches are pretty cool looking. Only 4 joints, though,

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

John F. Kerry

i only really like the last pic, but i really like the last pic


that would be so fucking awesome!

The Rev

Me, I plan on buying all my legal green at the farmer's market, in the traditional packaging!



The Rev

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no_limit1

yes, support your local ffarmers markets! its the only REAL food left in this country!

Mydriasis

Those packages look so sexy. I'd rather just get it in a little plastic container though. No opaque shit though, that just hide's the quality. Oooo what if they had like a little patch that had a little magnifying glass so you could see the trichomes through the container.

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Dr. ShinDig

^^ I agree, I want to be able to see the bud I'm buying. Even if the packaging only has parts that are clear.


and If I was marketing my own weed product then Dr. Shindig would be the official mascot. The stoned smileyface icon. bright colors and words with multiple strokes.

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TripperMore

I'll take mine in a clear vac sealed tube for freshness and so I can judge it's bud appeal before buying.

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An Ex-Tobacco Smoker

Mafoo

i want a sack of joints!

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PLUR
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return

testclear.com

I would hand out scratch-n-sniff cards to all my potential customers.

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