Trailblazing Ethical Practices And Cannabis Branding With Graphic Designer Savina Monet

Savina Monet is an herb focused graphic designer. She's been interviewed by LA magazine, Bud.com and has had her work featured in High Times, Glamour magazine, and Goop to name a few. Savina is a self-titled international queen of cannabis collages, and uses her graphic design talents and knowledge of the cannabis industry to help companies with their branding, website design, content creation, and more. On top of her creative career, she helps to maintain ethics within the cannabis space with her part in the Cannabis Workers Coalition, advocating for fair labor, and We Are Mota, which is Minorities for Opportunity, Transparency, and Accountability in Cannabis.

Host: What is your favorite song to sesh to? 

Savina: Okay, I was prepared for this! Sabor A Mi from Los Panchos. I've been really getting into like, you know, your, your grandparents, your mom's stuff that they were listening to growing up, and when you're high, it just hits different. 

Host: Who's your dream client to design for? 

Savina: Oh my goodness. You know, I don't have dream clients. I have dream projects. I'm going to manifest a skateboard design. I would love to do a skateboard deck. Weed and skateboarding, they go together. I'm talking like long beach vibes. It's gonna happen.

Host: How do you get out of a creative block? 

Savina: My best advice for this is, do something else that brings you joy or that ignites that fire of creativity. Say I draw and I'm really stuck on what I have to draw, I'm just staring at this blank paper. Sometimes it helps to stand up and go cook a meal. Go be creative somewhere else. Go put your outfit together for tomorrow. Do some water coloring.

When I feel that, I go to a different creative medium. It allows me to still express and investigate that creativity, but it doesn't give me the pressure of my selective medium… if that makes sense. Yeah, it just steps you out of that focus and into a place where new ideas can come in. Sometimes being hyper-fixated builds a little wall around your brain.

Host: What's your biggest dream for your cannabis career? 

Savina: Okay, if we're going to the stars, like big, big, big dreams…I would love to do just an installation, like a weed installation.

And I've always had in my mind like, fur, and neon, and black lights, and optical illusions that when you're high, just like trips you out even more. Everything life-sized, you know? I want to put the people in my 3D stuff, I want to put the people in the environment. I like immersion. A fully immersive experience.

Host: Describe what being a cannabiz owner is like in three words.

Savina: I'm trying to think like, what my experience is. Creative. Independent. If that makes sense. Well, and I guess… trailblazing. Cannabis is something that's still new, you know, even though it's been at least medically legalized for the last few decades. Oh my goodness. There's still so many states that are choosing to switch over that every market you are in, you feel like a trailblazer. You feel like a pioneer. No one has done this, and I think that's what's the draw and the excitement of cannabis.

Host: Absolutely. You literally took the word out of my mouth. Like, while you were thinking, I was thinking, and trailblazing is, as a cannabis owner, that's what you are. 

Savina: Every market goes through the same growing problems, but what I love is that we're, in some ways, getting out of the monopoly. I think that's what a lot of people hope for, for cannabis.  They don't want to see the big corporations, they don't want to see multi-state operators. In Oregon, thankfully for us, we're still a homegrown state, so we do still have a lot of legacy growers or family growers that are trying to compete. I just hope that for other states, they'll be able to open it up. For that market as well, you know? I think for every state that's legal, we need to have a homegrown law attached to it so that we at least have the freedom to harvest our own medicine.

Host: Where can people find you online? Where can people book you for your graphic design services? 

Savina: My Instagram is @savinamonet. My website is HelloMonet.com.

Cannabis Workers Coalition is also on Instagram @cannabisworkerscoalition

This is just an excerpt from Savina Monet’s Episode on Work Sesh. Listen to the full episode by following the links below.