Forbidden Cigars

Forbidden had a clear vision but no brand to carry it, and they were launching into an industry where the brand is the marketing strategy.

• No existing brand assets -- The entire identity began with a single hand-drawn illustration with no digitised logo, colour, type or applications.
• The product can’t carry the marketing -- Australian tobacco advertising regulation rules out any reliance on product imagery across every platform, so the brand identity itself has to do all the heavy lifting for awareness and recall.
• A category with no visual differentiation -- Existing cigar branding was either dated and traditionally masculine, or operating outside advertising compliance. There was no reference point for a modern, welcoming and inclusive brand.

We built Forbidden's complete visual identity from a single sketch, designing every element against the compliance constraints.

• Market Research -- We audited the competitive landscape across the Australian and international cigar market, alongside luxury brands with an underground aesthetics. That guided us into identifying the gap Forbidden could own and gave the design work a strategic foundation rather than a purely stylistic one.
• Brand Development -- We digitised the supplied sketches and built out a visual identity with a primary logo, secondary logo, brand marks, and iconography, all sitting alongside a typography and colour palette system.
• Application Suite - We developed business cards, social media templates, icon sets, drop-in packaging cards, email signatures, product mockups and packaging concepts all delivered alongside the identity.