Implicit codes for cannabis design
What is your brand actually communicating?
The steady evolution of the cannabis category makes design a key challenge for brands. Sub-categories are optimizing their core strengths, new pockets are being carved out that change the shape of the market, and existing brands are refining their stories, products, and messaging. Where established categories have design codes that help guide consumers around the shelves, each of the above dynamics creates challenges in communicating benefits and differences to consumers, helping them make sense of the space.
For many brands, design’s silent impact is the difference between success and failure. The challenge, however, is knowing exactly how to leverage design and speak to the correct audience in the right way. Understanding what your designs truly communicate and ensuring it’s meaningful and relevant to your target audience is the ultimate craft of branding and design.
The more literal you are, the less it sticks.
Contrary to intuition, the harder you try to say something and the more literal you are with design, the less likely it is that you will land your message. Often times it will be the opposite. How many whiskeys are called Top-Shelf? One. And how many of those are proudly displayed on the top shelf? Zero.
Consumers are smarter than that. The human brain is wired to decode patterns and make subtle connections in the pursuit of gaining an understanding of the context and to support decision making. From your name and the design of your logo and identity system, the feel and experience of your packaging, the tone of voice used to communicate; everything harmonizes together as unspoken cues to be subconsciously decoded within the greater context of culture. When properly arranged, these codes and cues are what create the connections with your target (an actual person, remember!), they trigger associations and become the things people remember, and they enhance your communication on a level that words, messages and advertisements are unable to achieve on their own.
Cannabis is an emerging category and its design has to work hard to communicate all the product features new to the consumer. It’s natural that the mainstream packaging design showcases a whole variety of explicit codes like Canna-names, descriptive logos, marijuana leaves, functional icons, etc. Obvious & explanatory design becomes cliché. Think wings on the airlines, or mountains on mineral water. Brands that end up owning a unique space in consumers minds do that through more implicit cues weaving together associations from life, culture & myth like, say Virgin or SmartWater. Evoke, rather than explain, could be a good start for your creative brief as it can take your design team to a richer creative territory.
Evoke what you intend.
The challenge with implicit design is controlling and understanding consumer perceptions. So how do you ensure your design tells the right story to the right person? Two ways. Ask people. They’re ultimately the ones who are going to be persuaded (or repelled) by the design. You will need to do it in a way to remove biases and friendly encouragement, but it’ll give you a decent start. The other is to seek a design professional to conduct an analysis of your brand. Understanding the semiotics and codes of design when placed within culture will identify the strengths and weaknesses of your brand, pinpointing where your designs are working to build the correct idea and where they are actually working against your brand idea.
