Maharani Gin

A fusion of two creative cultures, a gin of truly transcendent tastes.

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 Keralite women’s organic farming co-operative, which are then blended and distilled with craft in Cork by Master Distiller Robert.

The Approach

Strong women: a tribute

We created a brand and packaging system that acts as a tribute to Keralite women, known for their strength and importance in society. The packaging design utilises symbolism of revolutionary Keralite rebel spirits and figures of female empowerment through visual cues in the brand relating to Keralite folklore. We developed the name Maharani, which translates as ‘high queen’ in Hindi.

The bottle 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.