NIMBUS
Nimbus is a CBD vaporizer designed for the home. Counter to the cigarette form factor present in most of the vape market, Nimbus speaks the same formal language as a beautiful houseware product, representing the new self-care ritual for winding down at home.
Product | Brand | Experience Design
CONTEXT
November 2018, School of Visual Arts
TEAM
Kevin Cook, Runshi Wei, and John Boran Jr
MY ROLE
Packaging, Graphic Design, Illustration, Storyboarding
“I want something to help me wind down from the day. When you’re moving too fast, the transition is hard.”
—Katherine, 23, Anxiety Smoker
THE CHALLENGE
For the past 80+ years, cannabis has been stigmatized and unjustly portrayed as an intoxicating substance. Nimbus challenges these assumptions by giving it a new gesture and ritual, thus changing the public opinion from ‘getting high’ to ‘managing one's health’.
THE OUTCOME
Nimbus was designed considering the context of winding down at home. Counter to the cigarette form factor present in most of the vape market, Nimbus speaks the same formal language as a beautiful houseware product. Using the product evokes a ceremonial gesture. This gestures serves as a catalyst that creates a single purposeful moment in the day for people to transition from work into a restful evening.
Spending time to rejuvenate ourselves from stress is crucial to mental well-being. With the benefits of CBD, nimbus helps users mood switch from their stressful day into a peaceful evening at home.
Nimbus dares to tackle the controversial topic of cannabis consumption,
and celebrates the people who want to use it for self-care and wellness.
Process Highlights
Working on Nimbus allowed us to better understand a subculture by working closely with its members. The many qualitative interviews with cannabis experts—nutritionists, growers, and users—anxiety and medicinal smokers, and shop visits to dispensaries, illuminated for us that CBD as a de-stresser is an appealing and growing need for new users. Further research also revealed that women make up most of these adopters.
The most insightful finding was that those who seek to create a habit around destressing often need to incorporate relaxing methods into their daily routine for this new habit to stick. This finding pivoted the project into creating a new behaviour for self-care.
Our research findings also rely on a report by Frog Design called “Crossing the Cannabis Chasm”. It provided extensive background information and insights on “how to make it in the cannabis industry that is gradually being legalized.”
