REALM Cannabis
Project Duration June 2025 – Present (ONGOING)
Studio Services: Branding | Website Design | Content Marketing Design | Copywriting
Special Thanks & Credits To…
REALM Cannabis Team: Austin Huck (Lead Content Creator), Zara Kalisky-Tetreault (Merchandising Specialist) James Irons (Illustrator), Gene Ray, Kyle Vigeant
Illustrations done by James Irons Illustration
Project Information
Background
Realm Cannabis, launched in 2022 as the flagship brand under Massachusetts-based dispensary Garden Remedies, reshapes how cannabis is appreciated by focusing on flavor rather than the traditional sativa, indica, or hybrid classifications. Each flower is uniquely grown to craft distinct flavors that invite consumers to explore varied "realms" of taste, offering a fresh and immersive experience rooted in the richness of cannabis flavor profiles.
The Challenge
Since its inception, Realm Cannabis saw extensive growth across flavors and following. From a narrative standpoint, they took on a space travel theme which leveraged highly-detailed, AI-generated imagery of planet “realms,” with distinctive traits related to their flavor profiles. However, with only a boot-strapped custom wordmark and distinct fonts, Realm lacked a strong enough brand identity that allowed it to truly stand out amongst other competitors.
With that in mind, they needed a flexible brand identity system that not only made their brand a more premium contender in the market, but also unified their sub-brands and realms within a clear brand architecture.
Our Solution
We engaged the team at Garden Remedies to completely revamp the REALM Cannabis brand identity system and brand strategy. With renewed messaging and art direction, we proceeded with creating a library of expressive graphic assets and reusable templates for a consistent image that always stays fresh and dynamic. This leveraged itself into a suite of new packaging templates, web presence, and social graphics.
Brand Strategy
At the core of the brand, Realm Cannabis was about opening minds and perspectives. From our first Brand Discovery workshops, the stakeholders on the Realm Cannabis team made it clear that they aim to bring novices and the experts together through cannabis experiences enjoyed by anyone. No inside-baseball, just unparalleled flavor for the right set and setting. It’s ultimately where the whole “Realm” metaphor came from, and how they wanted to compel consumers to explore new ones. It was on us to help the team bring these two audiences together in a way that would excite and immerse them in our mission.
From that point on, it was about strong positioning and language. Not only did we tailor the brand messaging frameworks with forward-thinking, trailblazing, and guidance-driven attributes that define the company, but we rooted the brand within a commitment to craft and a fearless curiosity. Whereas the original branding called people to “Explore New Realms,” the time had come to center the narrative around their journeys, calling them to join the hunt.
Brand Identity
While the original Realm Cannabis branding was fairly minimal, the lack of strong narrative and graphic language resulted in a heavy reliance on generated-AI imagery. What otherwise fit the general “space” theme ended up being limiting in execution. With a renewed and refreshed brand narrative, we were challenged with elevating the brand without completely redoing it. This had us leaning into a more vibrant and dynamic “cyber-punk” direction—driven by bold, powerful colors, edgy and sharp angles, and an immersive character illustration style.
The new REALM Cannabis logomark system is based on a custom pentagonal mark, with five distinct realms converging into the center in harmony. The new wordmark paired a newly customized “REALM” with the new brand typeface, Eurostile Extended. A refreshed corporate palette of dark purples and blues not only paired well with the original black and white, but also with the base colors of each realm. Finally, deeper explorations of composition led us to create a system of frames and shapes that were flexibly used for packaging, social graphics and retail displays.
This had us leaning into a more vibrant and dynamic “cyber-punk” direction—driven by bold, powerful colors, edgy and sharp angles, and an immersive character illustration style.
Brand Illustrations
REALM Cannabis was founded on their expertly hand-crafted cultivars, selectively bred and grown to immerse people in their unique depths of flavor. With their quirky and eccentric names came equally-paired illustrations, done by illustrator James Irons. As these were a widely-favored part of the previous brand by consumers, based on insights from Wholesale, we sought to find opportunities to merge these together.
For each cultivar, we decided there would be a “hero” style illustration and a more “graphic” symbol/icon for them. This opened the doors to more unique apparel designs, as well as treatments for compliant in-store and social promos.
(MORE IN DEVELOPMENT, WILL CONTINUE TO BE UPDATED).
Packaging Design
With a newly realized brand identity system, we set out to create new packaging systems for all of their flagship products. Since the original packaging heavily relied on generated AI artwork, we wanted to make the packaging both visually stimulating and functional, allowing the shopper to know what realm they were getting from the jump. Additionally, we wanted to make the in-house production process smoother.
Taking the base realm colors, we expanded their color palettes with a series of tints and shades to add more flexibility with compositional use, while also attributing a unique gradient for each realm. These palette systems were then seamlessly applied to new labeling systems and bags.
Interactive
The site was originally created quickly to apply for grants, but it needed a revamp for future growth. The main challenge was to allow each member to create their own account and book venues or studio space. We started by creating templates for the main pages and sub-pages like team bios and venue pages. Members could book discounted reservations on each venue page. We decided to build the site using Squarespace Fluid Engine for its limitless customization and user-friendly CMS, with Acuity Scheduling for booking. We also made separate dashboard pages for each membership level, where members could instantly book studio or venue space.
With the new brand design, we created a library of reusable design elements and patterns for the website. This helped us design the pages more efficiently and allowed teams to quickly create and approve new pages. We also added scrolling features and hover effects that were tested thoroughly to ensure they worked well on all devices.
