High Design by LMC: Discover YouTube’s best cannabis documentaries
Finding authentic sources of cannabis history online can be like a lighter when you need it most… Painfully difficult. Luckily, a YouTuber is keeping the weed story post after post.
For earlier generations, books like Jack Herer’s Emperor Wears No Clothes or Dr. Lester Grinspoons Marijuana Reconsidered the Rare Resources to learn more about the history and science of the cannabis plant. For the modern era, Luc Carlin, founder of High Design, is informing a new generation of plant lovers with his cannabis documentaries High Design and the LMC YouTube channel.
Carlin was launched in 2019 and now has over 2,000,000 views of its High Design series, which features documentaries on cannabis powerhouses like Cookies and Compound Genetics. Carlin’s mission is to provide education on the history of cannabis culture and the business strategies behind the most prominent legacy-to-legal brands in today’s culture.
The successful accomplishment of that goal has taken the Washington native around the world as his audience continues to grow to new heights, including recently New York City and Colombia.
Here’s how this Seattle native exploded as he delved into the hidden gems and underground trends that define today’s legal industry.
The seeds of high design were planted during the pandemic
Just before the pandemic hit, Carlin had started creating “breakdowns” of videos analyzing “different marketing strategies, different companies, events and news,” he told Leafly.
“When I was in high school, I worked in Seattle’s medical dispensaries. It was the Wild West Days in Seattle. It was like what’s happening in New York right now and I was very fortunate to be able to be a part of all of that,” added Carlin. As the industry grew, he saw a need for education that was both thorough and true to the roots of cannabis culture.
Take the game to a new level
According to Carlin, some of the most successful episodes of his YouTube series were based on Leafly’s features on Runtz’s Yung LB, GUMBO’s Luka Brazi and the legendary Branson. “We need more real venison in weed, which is why I love what Leafly is doing with their 28 gram line of games,” says Carlin in one of his videos.
Likewise, the Leafly team sourced research and reporting from High Design to educate readers about the industry’s underground phenomena, including Berner, Jungle Boys and Backpack Boyz.
The smooth rhythm and soothing nature of Carlin’s voice also seem to capture viewers’ attention. Today, YouTube subscribers continue to browse his rich archive of weed history videos, suitable for both experts and beginners.
LMC on building a bud brand from the ground up
Carlin, who has been on his high design journey for the past three years, has become increasingly fascinated with branding. In 2015, the creator watched Washington’s medical market evolve as brands struggled to compete with more established cannabis companies in the market. Carlin believed that a strong personal brand could hold its own against Goliath competitors in a saturated market.
“I had many friends in the Washington medical market who lost everything because of legalization. They just didn’t have the money to switch to the adult side after launch or to take care of all the slotting fees at pharmacies.
In 2018, Carlin brought his passion for creative storytelling to his position as Director of Marketing at CannaGenesis, a Washington-based I-502 Tier 3 cannabis producer and processor before branching out to independently launch High Design. As Carlin built his channel, he decided to upload three videos a day, a strategy that eventually helped him complete nearly 1,000 videos by the end of the year.
Deep in the weeds
Not many cannabis journalists can boast of 16 hours of interviews with industry leaders like Jungle Boys co-founder Ivan and others, who break down what it took to take their brands from heritage to legality. These insights, gleaned directly from the people who influenced cannabis culture prior to legalization, are important to those venturing into the regulated dispensary business. High Design’s videos also preserve and distil history for the next generation of operators.
Carlin told Leafly, “Now I use my LMC YouTube channel to educate people in situations like this — people who are in the legacy market trying to find a way to succeed against multi-billion dollar companies.”
In an industry that has been illegal for decades, Carlin feels a responsibility to shed light on the true origins of operators, information that is typically only provided on a need-to-know basis by those deeply involved in the community.
Stay true to the culture
High Design also goes the extra mile to search for the most accurate reports on cannabis in history, with Carlin revising and re-uploading videos to clarify any disputed facts. While creating a feature about Branson, NYC’s most famous legacy player, Carlin learned the importance of what can happen when you get history wrong. After Carlin originally posted the Branson docuseries episode, he received a flood of feedback, some good, some critical.
Instead of fighting back in defense, Carlin took the constructive criticism and reshot the video. This time he had the opportunity to interview Branson himself after his children contacted Carlin directly.
LMC quickly released a more in-depth video, The New York Rapper’s Cannabis Plug Since the 1990s : BRANSON, which has amassed more than 260,000 views at the time of this writing.
The overwhelming results prove that a more accurate version of Branson’s story has a greater impact. Recent comments on the video show thanks instead of criticism.
From Carlin’s perspective, “There are probably hundreds of thousands of people from New York who have tried Branson’s weed and experienced the story I am telling. They want to tell these stories where a large number of people were a part of this historic moment.”
With millions of eyes and ears following LMC’s YouTube channel, Carlin holds the cards for the future of cannabis media. The truth is that the streets have always set the trends. No matter how much legalization pushes across the country, legacy brands like Branson’s remain entrenched in the hearts and minds of the cannabis community.
“If you’re trying to win this game, you need to be really, really knowledgeable about cannabis. You must be really, really smart. And you need to find a solution quickly with information. The best way to do this is to analyze people, to observe them. The ones who are fine. And see how you can learn from them and expand your own arsenal of tactics and strategies to succeed. So my guiding principle is to help the little guy win by providing information.”
Luca Carlin
Nadir Pearson
Nadir is a dynamic East Coast cannabis leader and entrepreneur. He is the founder of SMART (Student Marijuana Alliance for Research & Transparency), a national cannabis college organization and co-founder of Hybrid Co. Nadir also serves as project lead for Cannaclusive.
Check out Nadir Pearson’s articles
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