Status: Brainstorm
Phase: Phase 5 (AI Media) | Tier: Pro / Studio
Overview
High IQ already generates a Professor High mascot image for every strain in the database — a pineapple scientist character rendered in the visual style of each strain’s effects and personality. Strain Art takes the concept further by generating custom artwork that is unique not just to the strain, but to the user. Your Blue Dream art looks different than my Blue Dream art. The generation parameters are seeded by a combination of the strain’s terpene profile, its High Family classification, the user’s consumption history with that strain, and their overall cannabis personality. Two people who both own Blue Dream get two completely different pieces of art because their relationship with the strain is different. One person’s art might emphasize the Myrcene-heavy relaxation angle; another’s might lean into the Pinene-driven creative uplift they reported in their session notes. This matters for three reasons. First, uniqueness drives ownership. “This is MY Blue Dream art” is a fundamentally different feeling than “this is THE Blue Dream art.” People care about things that are theirs. Second, visual art is the most shareable format on Instagram, the platform where cannabis culture thrives. A beautiful strain portrait is native content for Instagram — it does not feel like an ad, a screenshot, or a product plug. Third, wallpapers are the highest-retention digital artifact. A strain art wallpaper on someone’s lock screen means they see the High IQ brand dozens of times per day without any push notification. The economics are excellent. Image generation is fast (5-15 seconds), cheap (0.10 per image), and the quality ceiling rises with every model update. This is the lowest-cost, highest-shareability AI media format on the roadmap.What It Does
Art Formats
Strain Portrait
Strain Portrait
A unique piece of art generated for a single strain, influenced by its terpene profile, High Family, and the user’s history with it. The visual style is abstract and evocative rather than literal — dense forests and warm amber for Myrcene-heavy strains, bright geometry and electric colors for Limonene-dominant ones, soft pastels and flowing forms for Linalool-rich profiles. Every portrait is a visual translation of the strain’s chemical identity.
Collection Mosaic
Collection Mosaic
A single composition that combines visual elements from every strain in the user’s collection. If you have 30 strains, the mosaic weaves 30 visual signatures into one piece. The result is a unique fingerprint of your cannabis journey — no two users will ever have the same mosaic because no two users have the same collection.
Monthly Art Card
Monthly Art Card
An abstract visual generated once per month representing the user’s cannabis consumption patterns. Dominant terpenes influence the color palette, High Family distribution influences the composition style, and consumption volume influences the complexity. January’s card looks nothing like February’s because the data is different. Collectible and series-building.
Wallpaper Set
Wallpaper Set
Three versions of each Strain Portrait optimized for different placements: lock screen (vertical, bottom-weighted for clock visibility), home screen (vertical, subtle and non-distracting), and Apple Watch face (circular crop, simplified). A single “Set as Wallpaper” action applies all three.
User Value
How It Works
Trigger
Art generates automatically when a new strain is added to the user’s collection (Strain Portrait), at the start of each month (Monthly Art Card), or when the user taps “Generate Collection Mosaic” on their collection screen.
Parameter Assembly
The system builds a generation context from the strain’s data and the user’s relationship with it. For a Strain Portrait, this includes: dominant terpenes (top 3), secondary terpenes, High Family, strain type (indica/sativa/hybrid), the user’s notes/ratings for this strain (if any), and a visual style seed derived from the user’s ID (ensuring uniqueness).
Prompt Construction
A mapping layer translates chemical data into visual language. Myrcene becomes “deep amber, dense organic textures, warm shadows.” Limonene becomes “bright citrus yellows, clean geometry, sharp light.” Caryophyllene becomes “warm copper, spiced textures, layered depth.” These visual tokens are composed into an image generation prompt with style parameters (abstract, painterly, high contrast, no text, no cannabis imagery — the art is evocative, not literal).
Image Generation
The prompt is sent to an image generation API (DALL-E, Flux, or Midjourney via API). The model returns a high-resolution image (2048x2048 minimum). Generation takes 5-15 seconds depending on the provider.
Post-Processing
The raw image is post-processed: crops are generated for different aspect ratios (portrait wallpaper, square card, landscape header), a subtle High IQ watermark is added to the shareable version (not the wallpaper version), and a thumbnail is generated for the collection grid view.
Technical Approach
Terpene-to-Visual Mapping
The core intellectual property is the terpene-to-visual mapping system. This is what makes Strain Art feel coherent and meaningful rather than random.| Terpene | Color Palette | Texture | Mood |
|---|---|---|---|
| Myrcene | Deep amber, forest green, warm brown | Dense, organic, layered | Grounded, heavy, enveloping |
| Limonene | Bright yellow, citrus orange, white | Clean, geometric, sharp | Uplifting, fresh, energetic |
| Caryophyllene | Warm copper, deep red, charcoal | Spiced, woven, textured | Bold, warm, complex |
| Pinene | Forest green, sky blue, crisp white | Crystalline, angular, airy | Clear, expansive, natural |
| Linalool | Soft lavender, blush pink, cream | Flowing, soft, translucent | Gentle, calming, elegant |
| Terpinolene | Iridescent, multicolor, prismatic | Shifting, complex, layered | Enigmatic, playful, surprising |
| Humulene | Earth brown, sage green, stone gray | Rough, mineral, grounded | Ancient, solid, contemplative |
| Ocimene | Tropical green, bright coral, gold | Lush, botanical, vibrant | Exotic, lively, aromatic |
High Family Style Modifiers
The High Family classification adds a compositional style layer on top of the terpene colors:| High Family | Composition Style |
|---|---|
| Blissful Highs | Soft focus, radiant light, centered warmth |
| Creative Highs | Abstract geometry, bold contrasts, dynamic composition |
| Energetic Highs | Explosive patterns, movement lines, saturated colors |
| Focused Highs | Minimalist, structured, clean lines |
| Relaxed Highs | Horizontal flow, muted gradients, spacious |
| Balanced Highs | Symmetrical, harmonious, moderate everything |
Storage Estimates
| Asset | Size | Per User (50 strains) |
|---|---|---|
| Strain Portrait (2048x2048) | ~2 MB | ~100 MB |
| Wallpaper variants (3 crops) | ~4 MB | ~200 MB |
| Collection Mosaic | ~3 MB | ~3 MB |
| Monthly Art Card (x12/year) | ~2 MB | ~24 MB |
| Total per user per year | ~327 MB |
Tier Impact
| Tier | Access |
|---|---|
| Free | See a low-resolution, watermarked preview of each strain’s art on the strain detail page. Cannot download, cannot set as wallpaper. The art is visible enough to see that it is beautiful and unique, but not usable without upgrading. |
| Pro | Full access to all art formats. High-resolution downloads. Wallpaper variants. Collection Mosaic. Monthly Art Cards. Share without watermark. |
| Studio | Custom style preferences (choose between abstract, painterly, photorealistic, minimalist), art regeneration (“make me a new one”), animated art (subtle movement loops for Live Photos/wallpapers), and print-resolution exports (4096x4096). |
Dependencies
- Strain data with terpene profiles — built and live
- High Family classification system — built and live
- User collection and stash data (Convex) — built and live
- Professor High artwork pipeline (reference) — built and live
- Terpene-to-visual mapping system
- Image generation API integration (DALL-E, Flux, or Midjourney)
- Post-processing pipeline (cropping, watermarking, thumbnails)
- CDN storage for art assets
- Wallpaper export and iOS wallpaper setting integration
- Collection grid UI for browsing art
- Share sheet integration for art sharing
Open Questions
- Literal vs. abstract — Should Strain Art include recognizable cannabis imagery (leaves, buds, smoke) or stay purely abstract? Abstract is more artistic and less stigmatized for sharing/wallpapers. Literal is more immediately recognizable as cannabis-related. Recommendation: abstract by default, literal as a Studio option.
- Regeneration — Users may not like their generated art. Should they be able to regenerate? Unlimited regeneration is costly. Options: one free regeneration, then $0.99 per regeneration, or Studio-only unlimited regeneration.
- Art consistency — Should all art for one user share a visual style (cohesive collection) or should each strain’s art be independently styled (more variety)? A user-level style seed could ensure consistency while strain data provides variety.
- Professor High integration — Should Strain Art replace the existing Professor High mascot images, complement them, or be entirely separate? They could coexist: Professor High for the encyclopedic strain page, Strain Art for the personal collection view.
- NFT potential — The uniqueness of per-user strain art has obvious NFT parallels, but the cannabis + NFT intersection has significant brand risk. Table for now; revisit if the cultural moment changes.
Related Features
- Session Music — Audio complement to visual art; same terpene mapping concept in a different medium
- AI Music Videos — Combines strain art visuals with music for premium format
- Share Cards — Strain Art could be used as backgrounds for share cards
- Strain Page Videos — Animated versions of strain imagery on the website
- Cannabis Personality — Personality type could influence art style preferences