BrandKnew September 2013 June 2014 | Page 38

STORY TELLING AND EDUCATION ARE KEY. ARCHITECTS SHOULD FOCUS ON THE WELL-DESIGNED DISPENSARY. Educating inexperienced consumers may constitute the biggest and most delicate hurdle for the new industry. “The marijuana marketplace is extremely confusing territory in regards to the benefits, serving size, and intended use of a product,” Kennedy says. Consumers might not understand dosage measurements, for example, or the differences between various cannibinoids such as THC and CBD. In short, THC, or Tetrahydrocannabinol, is the chemical component of weed that gets you high. CBD, or Cannabidiol, another chemical found in marijuana, has no psychoactive effect, but research has shown that it has powerful medicinal benefits, from inhibiting cancer cell growth to treating anxiety and epilepsy. (Read more about cannibinoids here.) Based in Denver, Kennedy’s company Apothecanna sells topical pain creams and sprays containing CBD, with simple, brightly-colored and informative labels. When he first started his company, Kennedy found that most bud growers selling his products had never heard of pain-relieving topical CBD products. WHEN IT BECOMES A FULLY ACCEPTED LEGAL PRODUCT, LIKE BEER, YOU’RE GOING TO SEE ALL KINDS OF BRANDING. “The solution was maintaining a minimal, clinical appearance for the product packaging,” Kennedy says. Apothecanna’s designers focused on clearly conveying the functions of their products’ ingredients. “We tried to keep it as simple as possible so a customer could solve the equation on their own without relying on an expert explanation from someone working at the shop.” His advice is to understand the purpose of the product and to communicate its benefit through an engaging story. DON’T TREAT IT AS A VICE. Highlighting marijuana’s extensively researched medicinal effects--which enabled its legalization--will boost any branding campaign. “What we’re building is a Whole Foods type of branding,” Shuman says. “It’s not about getting high or stoned or intoxicated--it’s about an overall sense of wellness, healing, and proper nutrition. If we discovered cannabis or hemp in the Amazon jungle today, it would be heralded as the new superfood.” The medical side of the industry is, after all, where many of the most game-changing and promising innovations are cropping up. In August 2013, Mary’s Medicinals released the first transdermal THC patch. The same year, Dr. Bruce Bedrick introduced the MedBox, the world’s first marijuana vending machine. (It doesn’t just pop out joints like bags of chips--it sits behind the counter at dispensaries, accessible only by clerks using fingerprint identification technology, to ensure that the process of filling prescriptions is safe and efficient. Gone are the days of discrete stores with blacked-out windows. SPARC, a San Francisco dispensary known as the “Apple store of pot” won an American Institute of Architects Award in 2011. Designed by high-end architecture firm Sand Studios, SPARC’s clean, modernist façade and open-shelved interior looks every bit the upscale retail outlet. Ryan Mungia, author of Pot Shots, took a look at the evolving aesthetic of marijuana stores in his book. “As pot continues its shift into the mainstream, I would imagine more dispensaries will utilize architects and designers as a way to offer their customers a sense of legitimacy and cache to what many still consider to be a questionable industry,” he tells Co.Design. The Farmacy in Los Angeles is another example of the direction dispensaries might head. Each of its outposts in the city have a customized logo, and sell a range of products from cold remedies to beauty creams to vegan edibles and acupuncture services. While some outlets will continue to rely on stoner iconography and head shop mentality, others will commission architects and interior designers to create a dispensary aesthetic. DISPENSARIES WILL UTILIZE ARCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS AS A WAY TO OFFER THEIR CUSTOMERS A SENSE OF LEGITIMACY. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS. Imagine whiskey-infused shampoo, or a line of gourmet tobacco cookies, or spritzing your dog’s kibble with tequila. You quickly start to realize how much of an edge cannabis has over the legal vices it’s often compared to. (Yes, companies such as Canna-Cat sell medical cannabis specifically for neurotic pets.) Unlike alcohol and tobacco, the versatile plant can be used medicinally as well as recreationally. It can be woven into clothing or added to skin creams. It can be smoked, ingested, or vaporized, through devices diamond-encrusted or 3-D printed. So, will you take it to the next level and be the first to 3-D print marijuana accessories? It’s a new frontier, and basically anything goes. That said, watch your step as you reach out. Carey Dunne is a Brooklyn-based writer covering art and design.