52 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / September 2019PHOTOGRAPHS^ COURTESY^ OF^ ROAMPackaging + Design
Creating a
New Journey
The vape brand Roam wanted to appeal to women,
so it designed packaging to target their wanderlust.
by NICOLE PAJERG
roovy Singh, the cofounder of Glass House
Brands, builds cannabis brands, and when
he looks at new markets, he doesn’t think just
about products—he thinks about who isn’t
being served, and what message will win them
over. As he explored the luxury vape business,
he saw an opening. “There were limited
options for new, female cannabis users who
were looking for a higher-end experience,” he says.
Singh imagined the ideal buyer—an independent,
successful young woman “whose life revolved around
traveling, exploring, and having the spirit of wanderlust.”
Then he enlisted a team of designers, including creative
director Hema Patel, to build Roam, which launched in
November 2018. Here’s how it came together.1 / Blend names
Many cannabis brands name their
blends after the feelings they intend
to create, e.g., Gratitude and Joy.
Singh wanted to differentiate his
brand, and locked in on travel. “We
loved the idea of creating cannabis
experiences that could transport
people to their favorite destination,”
he says. A naming convention
followed: Each of Roam’s four blends
is named after a place that evokes
its effect—Bali Bliss, Rio Soul, Paris
Nights, and NYC Hustle. (And Roam
defines each blend on the tube: Bali
Bliss, for example, is “for chill.”)2 / Images
If you’re naming a product after a city,
should you show the city on the pack-
age? That was Roam’s big question—
and at first, the team drafted designs
that contained an overhead photo of
each location. But Patel saw a prob-
lem: Photos focused too much atten-
tion on the destination itself, not the
abstract feeling they represent. So
she zoomed in closer to each city,
seeking what she calls their “natural
elements”— say, a headdress of a Rio
carnival, or the palm leaves of Bali—so
a Roam user could “feel close-up to
the energy” of the city.3 / Design
Next question: What to do with those
“natural elements”? Patel put together
mood boards, searching for “graphic
representations to bring the different
cities to life in a minimalist way.” Even-
tually, she landed on an artsy R logo:
The letter would be the same on every
bottle, but each city’s unique imagery
would come bursting through it. To get
a feel for what that could look like, she
literally took scissors to paper. “The
way I cut out the R felt like wings of a
butterfly to start with,” she says. She
knew she was onto something.4 / Packaging
Roam’s team wanted to create an
unboxing experience that touched
multiple senses. They chose a cylindri-
cal container, which Singh says is
associated with luxury more than
square boxes are. Then they put the
vape pen on a pedestal inside and
sealed it tight. “As you slide up the top
of the packaging, there’s this really
lovely air lock sound that happens
when it pops open, and then you see
your pen inside,” says Patel. “It’s really
about that whole user experience.”