Elephant is one of those rare design agencies, which can brag about having client relationships that are as old as the agency — take Symphony Coolers for example, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of air coolers — while having also worked with most of the top brands in the country like Colgate, L’Oreal, Bacardi, Reckitt, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Domino’s etc. While Ashwini Deshpande, Co-founder & Director, Elephant, and her team are truly riding the elephant as far as the design space in the country is concerned, they wish to take their success to the Asia Pacific region too, by expanding to Singapore, led by Swetha Iyer, Elephant’s Growth Director – APAC.
The agency, which is best known for its Paperboat packaging idea, will now take their expertise to Singapore largely to offer nuanced cultural and local insights to the exciting brands there. Iyer elaborates, “Elephant has always stood for design with purpose, and I’m thrilled to lead our APAC practice at such a pivotal time. Stepping into this role feels like both a homecoming and an exciting new challenge. With Elephant’s diverse portfolio and unparalleled in-house capabilities, we look forward to building a strong foundation and expanding our presence in the region.”
2025 certainly is the year of change for Elephant Design with the agency recently unveiling a new visual identity to symbolize their preparedness for the next 25 years. In conversation with IMPACT, Ashwini Deshpande reveals why they picked Singapore to go international, the brands on their wishlist there and her ambition to be a 100-year-old independent design agency from India.
Excerpts:
Q] Tell us about why you chose Singapore for Elephant’s APAC expansion
Several years ago, we were invited by Singapore Economic Development Board to start a design thinking practice in that region, they believed that we could add value in the product and innovation design space. But that chapter ended when the pandemic started. But recently we thought of collaborating with one of our ex-employees, Swetha Iyer who has been working with a lot of interesting companies in Singapore in the branding & design space. We at Elephant want to tap the emerging markets of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia; and Singapore appeared to be a great hub for it because several global companies have Singapore as their APAC HQ. In terms of FMCG, communication, packaging and branding, some of these markets today are where India was about 20 years ago. So, we believe we are in the right spot to be able to add value there, through a local network, local insights and local talent. So, Swetha has joined as an APAC growth director for Elephant and will grow our portfolio in the region.
Q] So, you’re using Singapore as a base to eventually expand to the other countries in Southeast Asia?
That’s right, we may not have an actual presence in those countries but we will be servicing them from Singapore. If one of those markets really blows up then we would consider having a presence there as well. We’ve done projects in Indonesia and Malaysia and know that those markets are quite receptive to what we have to give.
Q] You spoke about how some of these markets are where India stood 20 years ago. How different is Singapore from India currently from an advertising point of view?
I would just focus on branding because we don’t really do communication, but Singapore is an advanced APAC hub for global companies like Kimberly Clark or Unilever and several pharma companies as well. It sets the course for the region, be it innovation projects, branding, packaging, new ideas, formats, sustainability initiatives etc., it becomes a steering head for APAC. Many global brands today want to be perceived as local because people increasingly prefer local brands. They need on-ground support which is sort of nuanced in cultural insights. This is something we have delivered for brands in India and hopefully will be able to for these global brands in other countries as well.
Q] What distinct capabilities will you offer in Singapore over and above what you have in India and is there enough scope for an independent design agency there over network behemoths?
Yes, in terms of competencies and skills and offerings it will be what we offer as Elephant because we have always had a very large bouquet of services — from product design to product packaging to retail design to digital, branding will be our focus. We may not delve headlong into retail design capabilities because working on retail in remote locations is a bit of a challenge for now. Perhaps it will work out in the future.
Q] You have worked with several big brands here in India like Marico, Himalaya, Godrej, Emami who have significant business in APAC. Which of them do you hope to tap in Singapore?
It’s a little tough to talk about the brands that we are already tapping but we are hoping to touch all the multinationals that have a need to add value across the Asia-Pacific region by seeping into the local nuances, insights, user focused design and local sensibilities.
Q] You recently launched a new identity for Elephant after 36 years of its inception and now you are expanding to the APAC market, is 2025 a year of change for the agency?
Yes, very much. In fact a couple of big announcements are also in the pipeline and they’ll happen before the end of this year. I am that audacious person who will say I want Elephant to be a 100-year-old company. How many service companies in India can say that they are independent, have done really well, and survived and grown for 100 years. More Indian companies should have that ambition.
Q] Over time how has the design philosophy changed in India, what is the kind of value design adds to a brand today?
I’ll equate it to peeling layers, in the initial years we used to be called just for the top layers which in our lingo means ‘prettifying things’. Slowly we started getting invited for peeling the earlier layers and now over time, even before an idea has been finalized or detailed, a designer is called into the room to say — hey this is the idea, what can you add to it. We have started getting invited to develop the ideas itself.
