Spirit W | Redefining the Brand Designing space: WOW Design's Deepti Kshirsagar

For the dynamic, confident and self motivated Deepti Kshirsagar, creativity is a way of life. Post her graduation from Sophia Polytechnic with a degree in applied arts, she embarked onto her creative journey in full throttle. Designomics being her forte, she did a few short stints with some of the most noted graphic design boutiques. But boutique style design was not something that could hold her interest for long. Her passion for design ran deeper than face level and urged her to do something more challenging in the arena of design.

She joined Yellow with a vision to bring about a creative revolution in the  field of strategic Branding and Packaging, a phenomenon that had not touched most of the Indian brands then. Project challenges, straddling across geographies, killer deadlines nothing could stop her immense hunger of creating new benchmarks in the branding space.

Her shift from just a creative thinker to a sharp business professional and marketer was the most natural and successful transition. Today she spearheads WOW Design Pvt Ltd with a zest and childlike curiosity towards every new branding challenge. Though in a nascent stage, WOW gets it completeness from the associates involved.

Adgully caught up with Deepti Kshirsagar, Founder and Creative Director ,WOW Design to learn more about her career, challenges that she faced, her passion for brand designing and her views on the design industry.

Speaking about the company, Kshirsagar said, “Wow Design is another baby for me. It was conceived with lot of passion towards redefining the space of Brand Designing. A decade of deep diving into the sea of branding, successful endeavors in the FMCG sector led to some strong associations with some of the leading branding fraternity. All this led to the foundation of realizing my ultimate dream, a Strategic-Branding outfit that would provide branding solutions with a thoughtfully fresh approach and that’s how WOW Design a design business venture was born.”

WOW Design partners with brands to create thoughtfully fresh Brand Solutions that are practical enough to affect the sales figures and creative enough to touch the lives of the consumers.

It was her passion for translating the creative ideas into practical solutions and tackling the creative challenges that come with every new project which made her venture into this industry. Though Kshirsagar started her career as a purely creative professional, as she spent more time in the industry, dabbling between advertising and design, she realized design is something that can be applied to solve any problem. It has a science to it and if applied in the right manner it can work in practicality and touch the lives of people whom you design for in more ways than one. “That’s how I gradually migrated to the practical side of designing and then to translating that practicality into a revenue generator,” she said.

In terms of the challenges she faced, she said, “The Design industry in our nation is growing at a top speed. Where international Brands are coming in with a strong design and marketing foothold, it is the mid - size Indian entrepreneurial Brands who have to gear up to the paradigm shift. It is a key challenge to get these entrepreneurs to understand the importance of design thinking in order to create a healthy competition in the industry.”

Compromises make her uncomfortable and she believes in giving and getting 100% out of life be it on the professional or personal front. “I am only able to do this because of my multitasking abilities. Quick decision making and strong problem solving abilities have been a plus point. Other traits that have helped me are being enthusiastic, experimentative, authoritative, self-motivated and confident,” she added.

Having been in the marketing space for more than a decade now, how would she evaluate the industry’s growth and evolution? Giving her view point on the same, Kshirsagar said, “Branding industry is evolving in a very smart way now. Brand marketers are realizing that TV and radio is just the tip of the media matrix and that a plethora of other more potent media channels need to be explored to entrench brands in the consumers’ minds.”

Hence, according to her the dubious economy has made today’s consumer smart and circumspect. It is getting tougher and tougher for Brands to create an intimate space in consumer’s lives. “A thoughtful approach in Design is the way to go for any brand today,” avers Kshirsagar.

In her view Brand design is a specialized service area and always considered accessible for the privileged few big brands that are already established or trying to establish. Elaborating further on the same point, Kshirsagar said, “Since the inception of WOW Design, we had a motto to bring a paradigm shift in this approach. Hence, we took a conscious decision to work with lot of small and midsize companies, educating them on how design thinking and branding can help them grow. We worked with lot of brands catering to rural markets as we see a lot of potential in that segment for growth. Ghadi Detergent is a classic case study. These strategic decisions have given WOW Design a special place in the industry in a short span of 4 years.”

Kshirsagar makes sure that all the work that comes out of WOW Design has the wow factor imbibed in them in terms of giving the right solutions and also in terms of their sales figures for clients. To name a few, work done for London Dairy, Bingo yummitoes, Ghadi detergent and Garden are milestones and her favorites which make her feel proud.

Some women leaders who have inspired and motivated her are Chanda Kochhar, the super banker and an inspiring business woman for her sheer ability to having redefined the Banking sector and her intrinsic Indian value. She also admires Shobhana Bhartia, MD, Hindustan Times for her grit and capability to create a special space for Hindustan Times in the Indian hearts. She played a pivotal role in revamping the image of the HT into a ‘bright and young paper’ and was the very first woman chief executive of a national newspaper and  also the youngest with a career full of achievements.

Now coming to the most pertinent question: Do women have an edge over men in the marketing space? Kshirsagar opined to say, “Yes definitely. Women have an edge over men in marketing and management as they have a natural flair for multi-managing on all fronts. Women are strong decision makers and effective problem solvers.”

Sharing about her vision and goals for the next five years, she said, “Five years down the line I see myself representing WOW design on the International Branding scenario and doing what I love other than design, globe-trotting!”

She is an avid traveler, ferocious reader and an out and out foodie. She loves to explore new destinations and soak in in their culture and gastronomy. Being a part of a biker group and an active mother of a 6 year old, she believes that life is short and every moment of it should be savoured and listening to her heart more often than her head is the way forward for Deepti Kshirsagar.