When it comes to Advertising and the Creative Directors that power the cool ideas – Maca Masse is a rare unicorn. He’s rare because unlike most creative’s who partner with others to run the business side of things – he insists on doing it all. Maca founded and currently runs ORCV – which has been helping Bloom with design and branding for the past 6 months. Here Maca shares his thoughts on the complexity of the creative process, how creativity can be learned, why we should care about branding, and of course – how he enjoys cannabis.
What’s your focus in design?
Maca: It’s pure branding. I work closely with a lot of Marketing Directors so I understand their way of thinking. And I think that’s actually helped me solve problems better as an artist turned business owner. It’s understanding business. Design may be the aesthetic front of a company, but design-thinking is the approach of how to position a brand’s style and personality to present a relative message to its audience. And it was cool that we got to do that with Bloom.
Nailing the process is really challenging with design because as you’ve said it’s marrying these two worlds that work in contrasting ways: the art world and the business world.
Maca: Yes and people don’t realize how much thought goes into each image we create. Before we even design an ad – 70-80% of the work in getting there is first developing the brand positioning, who is the target audience… I broke down the creative process once and there’s 60 steps from the time someone has an idea to the time that the JPEG is delivered.
Whoa that’s a lot of steps! What do you find is the role of branding?
Maca: Ah yea so I use this metaphor if you will. So you have 5-hour Energy and you have Red Bull. To me there’s no difference except for the fact that one tells stories and builds a lifestyle, and the other is prescriptive. You drink this you’re good for 5 hours. So that’s a product. And I think Bloom, when I met them they were a product, and if they didn’t capitalize on the opportunity to become a brand someone else was going to do it ahead of them. So the timing matched, and we took their product and started to develop a lifestyle.
Why can’t a product stand on its own without a brand? If you have a good product, why can’t everyone just be like oh this is a sick product?
Maca: I do think there are sick products out there that you’re going to keep buying. But once you start to develop a lifestyle, when someone is hitting that vape you’re no longer like ok this product is great – your perception is higher; it now represents who you are.
We use brands to define ourselves.
Maca: Yes! Part of tapping into human psychology, which is great for marketing, is I think understanding that people want to express themselves. And as brands you give them an outlet.
We are emotional beings and we have emotions connected with the products we use.
Maca: Yes that’s what branding does. At the highest level it builds an ecosystem of like-minded people, where you live and coalesce together.
I also feel like there’s so many choices out there today right and if you have 4 products that are all amazing, you’re going to choose based on which you emotionally connect with most.
Maca: Yea you nailed it. You’ll pick the one you get the feels about. With going to any cannabis shop, it’s already becoming exactly what I knew it would be, which is a lot of noise. What Bloom and ORCV are doing well together is connecting with consumers psychologically.
And what is your personal relationship with cannabis?
Maca: Every time I smoke – I’d say 97% of the time – is to work.
What does cannabis do for you when you’re working?
Maca: So a lot of my best ideas have come from divergent thinking – where you don’t look at things for face value, and you get creative with it. And cannabis helps with divergent thinking.
Helps look at things in a different way.
Maca: In a totally different position. Cannabis has done a lot for me in terms of maintaining productivity. Reaching your flow – you hit a flow where nothing can really disrupt your thought process. With Bloom – we want to focus on the individuals who want to get shit done. Don’t ever look at it as just getting high anymore. Look at it as you can control your day and your experience.
Do you have any strains you like the best?
Maca: Well it’s been funny because I don’t know if it’s just a placebo effect for me – but there’s been some indicas I’ve taken recently that actually I’ve felt made me more productive than sativas.
I’ve actually found that some sativa edibles help me sleep better at night than some indicas.
Maca: And that makes sense because we can’t forget that our body is just a lot of chemicals. And when we’re intaking another chemical it really doesn’t matter what the label is. I think the label was there to help guide us.
Which indicas do you use during the day that you like?
Maca: I would say Grand Daddy Purple. I really like the taste of that. Blue Dream has been great. And when it comes to sativa the one I have in my pocket is Maui Wowie. It really just depends on the taste because right now I’m really able to function off of anything I smoke because I don’t take large doses.
What other ways do you like to consume cannabis other than Bloom vapes.
Maca: I love a good joint. I still can’t roll a good one for the life of me I have to use a little roller. That’s why I respect a good roll. And bong-wise – kind of funny story – I have this Louis Vuitton bong. It’s not a real one because Louis Vuitton wouldn’t make one.
Maybe one day they will!
Maca: Yea! And it’s beautiful it literally looks like a wine bottle. I actually used to put a little bit of orange Listerine in it. Just a little bit so when you’re smoking I had this whole concoction of flavor – and you just end up naming it stupid shit with your friends. Like orange chicken. But that was definitely an experience.
That is an experience.
Maca: You know it’s been an interesting journey. If it wasn’t for understanding that you can upgrade your mind, like a computer, I wouldn’t be where I am today. People tell me all the time they wish they were creative. And the fact that they think like that already it’s like – you can seriously upgrade your mind depending how bad you want it.
So creativity can be learned?
Maca: Yes! I believe anything can really. I always want to improve my mindset. One time someone told me I wasn’t good at finances or project management. So I just kept trying and trying and 3 years later I have to project manage everything about my business. And I don’t want anyone else to touch it because I understand the business side all the way to the end of the creative side.
For one thing I’ve always want to own my own product. It’s one thing to offer my services, but I have to offer my IP – Intellectual Property – to build the business. But now I’m in the first stages of building a product. That’s my dream. I’m going to be the CCO of this product.
Do what you do best for something that’s yours.
Maca: Exactly.
Interview by Meg Minuskin | Photos by Renae Wootson
