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Brand Strategy Insights from Ektaa Aggarwal

Our Shillington New York campus recently enjoyed an inspiring visit from Ektaa Aggarwal. From the talk we gathered her top 5 tips for designers starting out and highlighted 4 of the design projects that she presented. We followed up with Ektaa after the talk, read on to learn about her approaches to branding projects and advice to designers just starting out in their career.

Ektaa is a design-lead innovation consultant/UX designer with a background in communications design. She has worked at agencies across Southeast Asia and the United States creating disruptive solutions to complex challenges. Prior to starting consulting, Ektaa was a creative director at IDEO, responsible for their brand strategy and art direction for the rebrand. While at Landor India, her role involved building their creative reputation in India.

Ektaa has an interesting portfolio of work that explores branding & identity, brand management, human-centered design, culture design, and UX. Oftentimes, she comes up with the crazy ideas, finding excitement in how it could be brought back down to earth so that the client would buy into the idea. “Sometimes you have to find a compromise.”

Honing in on your own craft makes you unique.

Tips for designers

 

  1. Achieve craft through, technology, culture, words and systems, or any combination of these.
  2. You must do whatever it takes to get your foot in the door of whichever studio does the best work.
  3. Do your very best everyday so you can sleep well at night.
  4. Brand strategy has to come from a place of truth.

4 branding project highlights

 

1. Miss Chhotee

Packaging for preservative-free sauces that positioned the brand as a category leader for Indian consumers.

The concept for the sauces is brilliant! The vibrant colored illustrations are beautiful and evoke the culture of each country. What was the consumer response to the new packaging compared to the old?

It caught eye-balls because of its rich visual appeal. We used the entire surface area and not just the label. This approach helped with brand recall on the shelf. At the same, the packaging gave the company an opportunity for rich storytelling around the ingredients via the design of the packaging.

2. Ello

Krishna Handa wanted to create a brand that helps children dress better at affordable prices in the clothing that they like.

The concept behind Ello is so interesting, giving children the option to pick out their own clothing as opposed to their parents making the decision. What was the in-store customer experience like—how was the positioning of this brand and its visual system different from other competitors in the market?

We had ideated the retail experience as one of a playground, the kids would have had their own sliding in entrance—every touchpoint was designed to engage with children. Unfortunately, the retail experience didn’t get executed in its entirety.

3. Inscape App

This meditation app was created for finding balance, calm and clarity in a fast-paced, on the go world. Through the app you can immerse yourself in meditation and relaxation experiences, used by meditators of all levels, empowering creativity, vision, focus and heightened awareness.

Can you tell us about the branding and UX approach for this wellbeing app?

The design and branding needed to be simple. There were two key groups 1)  for first time meditators 2) users with extremely busy on the go lifestyles. We wanted to keep the information simple and structured for a seamless UX. We built in small interactions on buttons that would bring the brand to life.

4. Kids Taj

Creating fun activities for children staying at the Taj Hotels & Resorts globally.

While at Landor India in Mumbai, you were you the creative director for this project. It’s really interesting that a hotel created this bespoke experience for children to stimulate their creativity, allowing them to develop new hobbies and take home happy memories from their trip. How did the idea to create this experience for children come about—has this program been successful at Taj?

This idea came from a business need—parents were looking for ways to have a resort or city vacation with their children but needed to make sure their hotel choice was kid friendly.

What advice would you give to designers just starting their career?

Put yourself in situations that challenge you. Stay hungry—keep learning. Get a good mentor. Be authentic, only you can do YOU well!

Huge thanks to Ektaa for her visit to our New York campus. Stay up to date and follow her on Twitter.

We have regular visits from lots of inspiring industry figures at all of our Shillington campuses. Read about more of our past Industry Talks and stay tuned for reports on future visits.

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