Nov. 10-25
Insights from the Co-founder and Director of Elephant Design on what sets Indian design apart, how traditional influences shape the work, and how functionality and emotional fulfillment come together.
As part of our Indian Design in Focus series, we speak with Ashwini Deshpande, Co-founder and Director of Elephant Design. Her design perspective is rooted in India’s layered cultural landscape, where rituals, practices, values, and regional contexts shape how design communicates and functions.
Her approach brings functional clarity and emotional fulfillment together, supported by a multidisciplinary team that works across fields including product design, packaging structure and graphics, and retail experience design. Over the course of her career, she has seen India’s design environment shift, with clients increasingly open to bold, culturally grounded expression and more confident in ideas drawn from local identity rather than global benchmarks.
In this conversation, Ashwini reflects on what sets Indian design apart, how traditional and regional influences shape her work, how she has seen clients’ attitudes toward bold design evolve, and the trends and projects that stand out to her.
Unlike Italian, Scandinavian, or Japanese design, which have recognizable “signatures” that translate globally, Indian design, especially in brands and design space, cannot be pinned down to a singular style. Instead, it is defined by cultural layers: rituals, practices, values, habits, and the sheer diversity of contexts in which it operates.
Indian culture celebrates abundance and layers. A wedding meal, a festival décor, a temple façade, these are about richness and multiplicity. Packaging often reflects this as a maximalist approach. More color, more detail, more storytelling.
Indian culture celebrates abundance and layers. A wedding meal, a festival décor, a temple façade, these are about richness and multiplicity.
Indian design is a way of absorbing plural cultures, rituals, and values that speak across contexts. The success of Indian design is not in a unified signature, but in its ability to adapt, localize, and still feel universally Indian.
Most designers of my time were influenced by the West, with the Swiss or Bauhaus style of graphic design. However, as we started working for the Indian context, we were hit by the sheer magnanimity of Indian art, architecture and culture. We started looking inwards for inspiration rather than copying the Western idea of design.
As we started working for the Indian context, we were hit by the sheer magnanimity of Indian art, architecture and culture.
In India, you would find a different language and script across every 200 miles. This is also followed by lifestyle & food habits, availability of resources, and geographic diversity.
We have always tried to be sensitive to all the nuances and used them to advantage, for the user as well as the brand. Folk art motifs with their deep-rooted meanings, ingredients with traditionally known benefits, local phrases and scripts to communicate relevance… You will find all these in our work across categories and disciplines.
We believe good functionality makes things work, but emotional fulfillment makes things last. Our emphasis is always on creating long-lasting & sustainable solutions. We have a multidisciplinary team that includes user research and design teams across specializations. This enables us to begin with a deeper understanding of the user & their functional expectations as well as emotional needs that could potentially be fulfilled by our design solution.
We believe good functionality makes things work, but emotional fulfillment makes things last.
We have cultivated an atmosphere of transdisciplinary working that makes the outcome seamless. Be it a packaging structure, packaging graphics & augmented reality coming together or a consumer durable product with an interactive panel and an app, or a retail space with interactive experiences, we have the in-house capability to create a holistic experience.
Over the past three decades, I have seen Indian clients move from caution to confidence in design. Earlier, the tendency was to play it safe, often looking at global benchmarks. Today, with global exposure on one hand and renewed pride in local culture on the other, there’s a far greater willingness to embrace bold, distinctive design choices. In this evolving landscape of technology, aspiration and cultural confidence, bold design is no longer a gamble. It is becoming a strategic necessity.
For me, the best outcomes come from striking a balance. Starting with clarity of intent but leaving space for evolution. A rich cultural understanding gives the work its depth and authenticity, while genuine co-creation allows the brief itself to grow through dialogue with users, designers, and brand owners. Too rigid a brief can limit discovery, while unlimited freedom risks losing focus.
For me, the best outcomes come from striking a balance. Starting with clarity of intent but leaving space for evolution.
The sweet spot is where intent is clear, but the path remains flexible, enabling design that is both strategically sound and emotionally resonant.
I am pleasantly surprised by the emergence of local pride & cultural reversal with design that is sophisticated yet not shy of maximalism. The trend is also showing a major shift towards multi-lingual, multi-script expressions that cut across a large base.
Naming, visual identity, and experience design that includes packaging structure, shape & graphics for a brand of ethnic beverages, “Paper Boat” has been one of the most satisfying & successful design interventions for us.
What is most symbolic of Indian design isn’t a single monument or city, but the coexistence of contrasts. Besides the usual suspects like the Taj Mahal (which is breathtaking btw), I would also recommend the largest sundial in the world, located in Jaipur & the stepwell of Adalaj near Ahmedabad, the textile clusters, the folk theatres and food markets to get a sense of Indian design outlook.
I would have loved to collaborate with artiste MF Hussain and Architect BV Doshi, but unfortunately, they are no more.
It is not a magazine or a website. My inspiration comes from a visit to a buzzing Bazaar at the heart of any Indian city. The combination of maximalism in optics, sound, smells & textures brings out the most exciting creative possibilities.
To learn more, visit www.elephantdesign.com
All images provided by Elephant Design
