GEN!US has just launched in California with a luxury line of flower and pre-rolled joints that aim to facilitate creativity; all featuring a sleek ergonomic graphic design with bubblegum colors. Every facet of the brand, from packaging to product strains designed to open neural pathways and art-driven photography campaign, all express a singular focus – embracing the enlightened territory that can be reached through responsible consumption. The bright hued packaging in particular alludes to the vivid colors that can be experienced when using cannabis, while a clean simple design seeks to legitimize the product category and its evolution into a contemporary offering that goes beyond the ‘stoner’ stigma. To capture this creativity halo and high-end design focus of the brand, Gen!us has turned to emerging talented photographers Daniel Forero, Justin Jerrod and Maggie West, who infuse a David Lynch-esque vibe in a series of photos that play with color, composition and smoke to show cannabis in a contemporary light.
Gen!us Graphic Designer is Chris Gennuso, who has been working since November 2018 to design the growing line of Gen!us packaging, with crucial support from an inhouse Packaging Engineer and Production team. Gennuso notes: “With our packaging design, one of our driving principles was to add an extra layer of thought into each product — is there something about the way this product is consumed that might be enhanced by how the product is delivered to the consumer? We took things like odor-proofing, preservation and convenience designed with cannabis users in mind. Aesthetically, our use of color is influenced by our early experiences with cannabis: colors become incredibly vivid and powerful while under the influence of THC, this phenomenon forever changed the way I appreciate color in life and in design. We hint at this psychedelic sensation using bright neon colors which reflect the feelings each strain type promotes. The information and graphics use a clean and friendly design that looks like it could be sold in traditional retail stores. We chose this approach in an effort to legitimize cannabis as a consumer product and project our vision for a future where cannabis is mainstream and the stigma is long gone.”
