Heavy Metal x Berkshire Roots

Brand Collaboration, Packaging System, Retail Experience, Campaign

Some projects are big. This one was everything.

When Berkshire Roots entered into a brand collaboration with Heavy Metal, the national entertainment and media company, the scope was unlike anything a typical packaging project demands. This wasn’t a label redesign or a single product launch. It was a full brand activation, from product packaging to retail environment to trade show presence, all on a compressed timeline driven by one hard deadline: beat the Chinese New Year manufacturing rush or lose months of lead time.

The Strategic Challenge

Collaborations between an established national brand and a regional cannabis retailer require careful visual negotiation. Heavy Metal had existing brand equity and aesthetic DNA that needed to be honored. Berkshire Roots had its own retail identity and customer base. The work had to feel like a genuine creative partnership, not a licensing slap-on. And it had to perform across an unusually broad range of touchpoints simultaneously.

The Work

Working directly with the Heavy Metal creative team, I helped establish the visual brand elements that would govern the entire collaboration, then extended that system across every application on the list.

The packaging system was built around a collectible feature — something that rewards repeat purchase and creates a reason to engage beyond the product itself. Collectible cards and packaging inserts with QR codes were developed to drive post-purchase marketing and deepen the brand relationship with the consumer.

Collectible Cards

Some of the packaging could not contain a collectible insert, including the flower jars, chocolate pouches, and concentrate boxes. For those I created a set of three related collector cards that budtenders could hand to the customer at the time of purchase.

Establishing the production timeline was as much a part of my role as the design itself. I mapped the packaging timeline against the projected cultivation and kitchen production schedule so that finished packaging arrived in sequence with available product.

I tracked packaging-related expenses, prepared die lines, and coordinated across multiple vendors simultaneously to keep everything moving.

The retail environment required its own design language. I worked with Berkshire Roots retail managers to design dispensary interiors that brought the collaboration to life in-store, including display pieces, outdoor signage, and TV screen graphics that made the space feel like an event rather than a transaction.

The trade show presence extended that energy further.

I designed a complete suite of trade show materials including:
a canopy, backdrops, tablecloths, banners, posters, signage, and giant character cut-outs

I also designed sellable merchandise and promotional items:
lighters, rolling trays, tee shirts, stickers, and temporary tattoos

These rounded out the brand world and gave consumers something to take home.