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Rebel City is a boutique distillery breathing new life into long abandoned factory buildings in Cork’s historic Docklands. A fusion of two creative cultures, a gin of truly transcendent taste, Maharani is the first release from Rebel City Distillery. Born as a tribute to Co-Founder Bhagya’s home state of Kerala, India, Maharani is uniquely flavoured with spices sourced from a Keralan women’s organic farming co-operative, which are then blended and distilled with craft in Cork by Master Distiller Robert.

We created a brand and packaging system that acts as a tribute to Keralan women, known for their strength and importance in society. The packaging design utilises symbolism of revolutionary Keralan rebel spirits and figures of female empowerment through visual cues in the brand relating to Keralan folklore, namely of the Goddess Kali, liberator of the spirit, who is referred to as ‘The Dark Blue Night’. We developed the name Maharani, which translates as ‘high queen’ in Hindi.

The packaging is adorned with a mixture of Western and Malayalam typography (the primary language of the state of Kerala), the graphic style a contemporary take on aesthetic colloquialisms found in traditional Indian design.