He is the adman then Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray turned to to create an awareness campaign about Covid -19 when it started wreaking havoc on lives in 2020. Bhupal Ramnathkar, founder and creative director, Umbrella Design, has amassed over 250 national and 50 international awards including those at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the London International Awards, the New York Festivals and the Asia Pacific Adfest. In an interview with Akanksha Nagar, he talks about how the design space in India is responding to new technologies. Excerpts:
How have the latest technologies including generative AI and ML impacted the design industry in India?
I have been in this business for over three decades, and in that time, I have seen technology evolve from one stage to the next — from paper and pencil to computers, from paintbrush to airbrush to PhotoShop, and so on. What hasn’t changed is how an idea is born; what hasn’t changed is that technology is a tool to execute the idea. With every advance in technology, there is a perceptible improvement in the craftsmanship. When you know that a lot more can be achieved with the use of technology, you learn to push the horizons of ideation too. But you need a human creative mind to come up with an idea.
It is AI/ML today, and who knows what tomorrow? But one thing will not change, and that is, there is a human at the receiving end of design and communication. The good news is that AI & ML will automate the repetitive tasks that are part of the designing process. This will allow designers to focus more on the creative part of their work. Today, the agency has tools that can translate designs into CSS, give colour scheme options and develop brand kit ideas. Tools like these can do away with time-consuming tasks.
Can technology help put India on the global design map?
I believe India is already on its way to being on the global map of design. Original work being done here is being used across the world. Technology and connectivity have been the enablers making this happen, and this will only accelerate in the years to come. If we go beyond the cliched perceptions of design, we can see the impact it is having in everything from architecture to product design and communication. Like Mohammed Khan once said to me, “The function of design is to solve a problem”. If we identify and define a problem well, design interventions will flow out of it naturally.
From the time I started Umbrella, the most important change is that design is now an established discipline. We have design schools; we have clients demanding design agencies and we have specialty design agencies. With the acceptance of design as an independent discipline, the client brief to the design agency has evolved too — it is focused, deeper, and driven by brand and design strategy.
Umbrella Design has, over the years, forayed into multiple disciplines. What is the key growth driver?
Approximately 60% of the agency’s business comes from branding and communication (which continues to be our key growth area) with packaging, publishing, and environment design contributing the rest. The new space we are exploring now is spatial and environmental design. It is an extension of our belief that brand experience can be created through design. The long-term vision for Umbrella Design is to understand the consumer, respect the brand, accept change, and keep trying to get better at what we do.
As a design agency, most of our clients engage with us for a time limited to the duration of a project. In the past, we have done short- and long-term projects for clients like American Express, Flipkart, Kalyani Group, Marico, Raymond, Reliance Industries, Saraswat Bank, and more. We have been associated with Jio from its pre-launch days. We usually don’t have targets in the classical sense and rely on our work and client relationships to get us more business. Except for the first five years when we had phenomenal growth, the agency has averaged a steady 12-15% growth every year, and last year was no different, it did 15%. With the new focus on environment and installation design, we have set the target for FY24 at 25% growth.
How would you define the role of design and packaging at a time when brands are battling to catch consumer attention in a jiffy?
Design and packaging are both visual-first disciplines. That is why they are inherently suited for this mobile-first, social media-driven era of short attention spans. In fact, they have become more critical for brand success, and those who push the limits to create outstanding design and packaging have a better chance of making the consumer pause and engage with a brand.