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Designing Through Regulation: My Experience in the Vape Industry

6/3/2026

Los Angeles, CA - I entered the vape industry professionally around 2019, right as the landscape was beginning to change. The timing was interesting. Pandemic closures were affecting businesses across the country, and new regulations were slowly making their way into the industry. As a designer, I found myself caught between two worlds: creativity and compliance.

Back then, vape packaging was often colorful, bold, and heavily inspired by candy, fruit, and cartoon culture. Many brands used illustrated characters, mascots, and playful visuals to build memorable identities. The company I worked for was no different. Much of our branding revolved around sweet, candy-inspired flavors, and creative packaging played a major role in communicating those experiences.

Then the regulations started arriving.

I remember a period when we had to remove cartoon fruits, characters, and other illustrated elements from packaging designs. The concern was that cartoons could appeal to children and create unwanted influence around adult products. Whether you agree or disagree with that reasoning, it became a reality that designers in the industry had to adapt to.

From my perspective, influence exists everywhere. Music, snacks, beverages, toys, and countless consumer products all compete for attention through creative marketing. Still, vaping found itself under an increasingly powerful microscope, and design became one of the first targets.

As a creative professional, it felt like a piece of artistic freedom was being removed from the industry. Yet looking back, that challenge also became an unexpected lesson. Working within restrictions forced designers to become more adaptable, more strategic, and far more detail-oriented.

Between roughly 2020 and 2023, vape companies across the industry were redesigning packaging simply to keep up with compliance requirements. Minimalism became the safest route. Labels became cleaner, simpler, and often far less expressive than what came before. Many brands abandoned the bold visual identities that had helped define the industry's early years.

I would argue that the industry's biggest turning point came during the JUUL era. Whether fairly or unfairly, vaping found itself at the center of national attention. The spotlight intensified concerns about youth access, flavored products, and marketing practices. Once that happened, the entire design landscape shifted.

Many of the visual elements that had once been common throughout the industry suddenly became liabilities.

The introduction of PMTA (Premarket Tobacco Product Application) requirements was presented as part of the solution. In theory, the process would help regulate products and create a clearer path forward. In reality, many companies invested significant amounts of money into the process, while only a relatively small number received authorization. Countless others remained in a state of review or processing for years.

That naturally led many people in the industry to ask questions.

Was the process primarily designed to eliminate certain marketing practices and design elements? Was it intended to reduce the number of products on the market? Or was it simply an expensive regulatory system that favored companies with deeper pockets?

I don't pretend to have the answers. I've been away from the vape industry for about a year and a half, and a lot can change in that amount of time. What I do know is that many of the vape shops I used to visit are no longer around. Some closed their doors. Others disappeared entirely. Finding the products and flavors I once enjoyed has become much more difficult than it used to be.

Looking back, the vape industry was once the Wild West of branding, graphic design, and marketing. You could create almost anything you imagined. Mascots, characters, candy-inspired themes, elaborate illustrations—creative freedom felt limitless.

By the time I left the industry, that freedom had become heavily regulated. Many of the ideas that once defined vape branding were no longer viable without facing compliance concerns or regulatory scrutiny.

Despite the challenges, I'm grateful for the experience.

Working in a highly regulated environment forced me to think differently. It sharpened my attention to detail, strengthened my ability to adapt, and taught me how to navigate creative problems within strict boundaries. Those lessons have carried over into every design role I've held since.

For designers considering work in the vape industry today, it's important to understand that it isn't the same industry it was a decade ago. You'll likely be hired more for your knowledge of regulations, compliance, production, and problem-solving than for unrestricted creative expression.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's simply the reality of the industry today.

And in an environment where a new regulation can dramatically affect an entire category overnight, it can sometimes feel volatile. There were moments when it felt like my job security depended less on my performance as a designer and more on whatever policy might be announced next.

That's a unique challenge few creative industries experience to the same degree.

For better or worse, it was one of the most educational chapters of my design career.

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