LFH reveals hidden depth

Bad news for all those cool cats out there. Jazz sounds a feminine note with smokers. Or so London design group Lloyd Ferguson Hawkins found when researching names for a new addition to the Memphis cigarette brand, Austria Tabak’s market leader.

Blue attracted a more upbeat response among the younger target audience, so Memphis Blue was chosen to match ‘the new brand’s Americana positioning’. It’s currently a fashionable colour in Austria, which helps the lifestyle image.

According to LFH founder Mark Lloyd, the idea was ‘to look at contemporary ways of dealing with a cigarette pack rather like a poster. We wanted to get away from cues of traditional cigarette packs,’ he says. The existing Memphis crest and typeface were givens, but the word blue is used typographically as a backdrop to the pack to give depth.

‘We wanted to create a laid-back design, not harking back to the US too much,’ says Lloyd of the branding for both full-strength and light versions. The result couldn’t be much further removed from rival brand Marlboro’s macho man image.

Design: Lloyd Ferguson Hawkins

Client: Austria Tabak