News & Features March 5, 2008, 2:55PM EST

The State of Indian Design

(page 2 of 2)

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While design may be struggling to establish its identity, the advertising industry is flying, largely due to the achievements of Ogilvy India, and the dynamism of the agency's executive chairman and national creative director, Piyush Pandey. It seems, in fact, that wherever you look in Indian advertising, Ogilvy's mark is present, with significant numbers of senior creatives in other agencies having started at the company. Ogilvy's work has set the bar for advertising across the country, creating work that contains a universal charm and humour, while remaining distinctly Indian in its style. "I guess with hindsight I can only say that our approach was to keep the Indian audience in complete focus while communicating with them," says Pandey of the secret to Ogilvy's success. "We believe that when you think local, there's a greater opportunity of going global. If you start with global, very often you end up with the lowest common denominator."

"The Indian advertising industry faces tremendous opportunities," he continues. "The market is growing, India is rocking and opportunities are knocking. The challenge is to be prepared, so that we can grab the opportunity with both hands." Interestingly, rather than only looking to the West for inspiration, Pandey cites an enthusiasm for work coming out of Thailand, South Africa and Latin America, all regions where exciting ad developments are also occurring.

If anything though, Ogilvy's phenomenal success could be said to have over-influenced Indian advertising, making it difficult for new approaches to come through. Perhaps that will change with the recent acquisition of boutique agency, A, by Wieden + Kennedy to be the network's Indian arm. "Agencies here either copy a Western style or are asked to match Ogilvy's style of advertising," comments V Sunil, partner at the Delhi-based agency. "We feel we are very Indian in our sensibility but we're the new Indian cool guys – all of us would be very comfortable in New York or London, but we're very proud of the whole Indian thing and are able to show that in our work."

Also emerging are smaller, more experimental teams working across both design and advertising, such as Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra, who work collaboratively across a wide variety of media, creating graphic design, music videos, product design and art installations. Thukral and Tagra are aware of the social impact design can have and are keen to use it to, "improve communication and solve the clutter and chaotic information which is flooded all over".

This is also a priority for designers Aman Khanna and Carlos Coelho, who, after studying at the lcc, set up the agency Infomen focusing on information design, with offices in London and Delhi. "It's an interesting time to be in India as the country is witnessing major changes in its economic, social and physical structure," says Khanna. "Good design could highlight the changes and help people to understand them better. This not only gives an amazing opportunity, but also brings a sense of responsibility."

On the whole, however, the notion of design occupying a socially responsible role, which so concerns Western design at present, has yet to emerge in India, a fact that the Kyoorius team are keen to address. "The awareness of the role that good design can play in society is still very low," says Kyoorius Design Magazine's editor, Mouli Marur. "The effect of the indiscriminate use of plastic and non-biodegradable material for packaging is yet to sink in. The euphoria of the opening of the market overshadows considerations of sustainable design."

Marur stresses that it is important for the current boom in design events across India to address these concerns and promote awareness of, "not just brands and profit, but also the various issues that plague a fast-developing economy with a very pluralistic population. It needs to strive to arrive at a balance between design purely for corporate profit and design that is sustainable."

With all these issues circling in such a rapidly expanding market, demands on designers in India are high. It seems however that, rather than being in competition with one another, the interweaving of advertising and design could help achieve some of these aims. "The advertising industry is very well established in India, while design is still trying to carve out a little piece of territory for itself," says Sujata Keshavan. "I personally don't see the relationship between advertising and design as contentious. As far as I can make out, creative people in advertising are no less engaged in the act of designing than are 'designers' in design agencies. There may be a difference in approach or priorities, or in the mediums used, but essentially both groups of people are designing things in their own way. I believe that in order to carve out a space for themselves, designers have used advertising agencies as 'the other', or 'that which I am not', which I believe is unnecessary. I think there is work and space for both industries to thrive."

Provided by Creative Review—The World's Leading Monthly Magazine for Visual Communication