Beyondesign

Mumbai, India
www.beyondesign.in

Left to right: Pravin Parab, graphic designer; Sabah Arenja, art director; Bhavika Shah, proprietor and creative director; Joylin Fargose, senior designer; and Pravin Pote, graphic designer

When Bhavika Shah returned to her home in Mumbai (aka Bombay) after receiving her masters in graphic design from the Savannah College of Art and Design in the U.S., her attempts to fit in at established Mumbai design firms were not satisfying her creative talents. So Shah founded her beyondesign firm with one client a little over two years ago, and with each new client she invested her gains back into the firm with better computers or new staff.

The beyondesign firm has since served about 200 clients, and the staff is up to nine full-time professionals, all of whom are under 26 years old. The firm is a creative design agency specializing in all things visual in a competitive but culturally rich city of 13 million people. Collectively, the staff brings together a strong mix of experience and skill with backgrounds that include print design, fine arts, copywriting, photography, content creation, editing, marketing, business management, web production, and sales strategy.

Shah stresses that a package label should not only be attractive, but it should also be informative and memorable. Whether producing a new corporate brand, a campaign, or a picture postcard, beyondesign aims for this tagline mandate: "It must be Visual. Unique. Compelling. Unforgettable."

"I realized that design was changing from an old school to a new school," Shah says. "This is the first generation in India that is recognizing the importance of design. " She explains that the strength of traditional Indian design was its intricacy and ornate detail. Today, a minimalist trend is gaining momentum in India, but the high attention to detail remains.

Last year, Diageo chose beyondesign to invent the complete identity for their first Indian wine, Nilaya. The firm created the Nilaya brand from with a clean international look with white, silver, and blues. Though the use of the non-food color of blue was bold, Shah believes the brand identity manages to retain a strong Indian identity, aided by a stylized Sanskrit "n" on the label. The brand's story speaks of passion, magic, and ethnic India interweaved lyrically to bring out individuality and spirit.

Several trips to Nashik valley, meandering through the vineyards, deliberate swirling and tasting of the wines at their several stages of winemaking led to the development of a fantastic and interesting story about a young lady tying a blue scarf on a limp grapevine. Beyondesign also wrote the tasting notes with thoughtful consideration to communicate the right mood, essence, and flavor of the particular wine variety.

The firm's design process usually includes extensive design research that adheres to a systematic model and ethnographic and psychometric research methods. Shah believes that in today's age of a more learned consumer, it is crucial that product packaging aligns well with product authenticity. "It's interesting how people have adjusted to new designs," says Shah.