Hycycle gets new high-impact packaging.

So, as the brand grew, guidelines became a little less observed by industry and budgets increased, we were able to start punching above our weight. Starting with packaging. The volumes were now there to consider custom packaging for not a whole lot more than generic white bags and stickers. So we thought. We did. It’s winning.

Almost didn’t make it through QA…

After briefing the LP partner’s QA team of our intention, we set to work on a new suite of packaging for the ever-expanding collection of strain varieties. Indica, Sativa and Hybrid were fine for the unsophisticated consumer in the beginning, but consumers now know more about cannabis and what appeals to them. With more vape cartridges on the market, there were a few thing we were trying to achieve in this packaging migration:

• Colour differentiation for retailers to be better able to identify the SKU from the bundles
• Colour punch to draw the eye of the consumer at shelf
• Immediate recognition of the variety name
• Simplified package
• Smaller footprint

The new bags are printed on a metallic substrate. There was no use of metallic inks, finishes or other metallic techniques that would run counter to the Health Canada regs. We saw what the Bag-o-Buds folks were doing with metallic pouch substrate and went to town, using the metallic base as the printing surface and then applying a matte laminate to inhibit reflection and give the package a nice luster. The array of colours makes them easier to find when wrapped in an elastic band or tightly packed in a box (retailers, you know what we’re talking about).

The child-resistant zipper was booted as the package is considered a one-time package and does not need to be resealed. The tough nylon pouches do not have any tear notches and are therefore difficult to open without scissors, making them child-resistant. The removal of the zipper allows the pouches to be about 25% smaller.

While keeping a consistent presentation, each variety has its own personality in the wordmark created for it. A personality as well as a style that matches the effect expectation. In a few cases, the marks appear to be larger than the Health Canada SCS warning (stop sign) but that’s thanks to using an outline. If there is only the background colour within the outline, we interpret that not to count towards total surface area and therefore still less coverage than the SCS.

With the impactful graphics printed onto the package, the pressure was off for labelling – black only now for the information and barcodes. No more printer maintenance and calibration!

Back to QA… When the pouches arrived on site at the facility, the QA team finally realized what we meant when we indicated we were going to print onto the metallic substrate and blocked production until we could prove that these did not violate the regs. It did not matter that three other brands were now doing the same thing. Thanks to our sweet-talking and documentation from the pouch vendor that these used no metallic applications (ink, stamping or other applications) we were back in business.

Not all repackaging needs to be drastic. Find out how we can help update or refresh your existing packaging here.