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<ul><li>In our latest series, we look at different industries to understand what was 2020 like for them and to crystal gaze into the upcoming year, and identify some of the trends that will set the tone for 2021.</li><li>We speak to experts to find out design trends that 2021 has in store for us.</li></ul>It is often said that your brand is something people talk about after you've left the room. It's all about perception. Product and packaging design plays a pivotal role in building a likeable perception that leaves a lasting impression on consumers in a highly-cluttered market. It also shapes a brand’s identity and can lead to increased sales. However, with the outbreak of Coronavirus and the resulting lockdown, many consumers turned to e-commerce platforms to order from the comfort of their homes and it became a key part of everyday life. Consumers lost the experience of walking in a supermarket or a store that offered an immersive brand experience. COVID-19 also made ‘hygiene’ one of the top buzzwords amongst consumers. Design experts had to up their ante by coming up with packaging design that was appealing enough to be delivered to consumers’ doors directly as it was seen as a bridge between consumers and brands. It was also required to communicate the hygiene practices that the brand followed, precautions that were taken to maintain consumer safety and how slapdash delivery didn’t affect the core product for consumers. So, food delivery brands added another layer of sleeve so that the actual food pack remained untouched or placed a health card on the packs with temperature of the restaurant representative, or in some cases, attached sanitizer sachets to their packs. At the same time, experts had to make sure that the pandemic doesn’t put the environment on the back burner. As a result, many brands altered their product offerings, marketing strategies, and packaging design completely to meet ever-changing consumer demands in 2020. The brandverse is also moving towards personalisation and simultaneously, as consumers become more environmentally-conscious, designers are constantly in search of materials that provide long-term hygiene efficacy, materials or processesThe brandverse is also moving towards personalisation and simultaneously, as consumers become more environmentally-consciousthat do least harm to the ecology. As the year draws to a close, we reached out to experts to find out how the <keyword id="2728733" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="design-industry">design industry</keyword> will navigate these challenges and a few trends that would monopolize the marketing world in 2021. Here is what experts had to say: <keyword id="346168" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lulu-Raghavan">Lulu Raghavan</keyword>, Managing Director, Landor &amp; Fitch India: <div type="image" title="Lulu Raghavan" msid="80021337" hostid="261"></div> Workspace Design As businesses seek to return to some form of pre-Covid buoyancy and start to think about the right mix of #WFH and #WFO, I believe that Workspace Design will be one of the most important design considerations in 2021. This is a huge opportunity for companies to connect better with their employees. Businesses can't just return to their former workplaces without reimagining the experience in its entirety for employees. I am not talking about office design which is just about layout, headcount, resources and utilities. Workspace design is a deeper discipline and mindset that connects office design to brand. It dictates the journey, the overall experience and ensures that the brand’s values and function are reflected in the physical, human and digital space, much like retail. The most progressive businesses will be thinking about the six imperatives of Workspace Design: culture, interaction, function, sustainability, architecture and technology. A well thought-through strategy on Workspace Design could help businesses to forge stronger relationships with their employees who in turn will become great brand ambassadors. <keyword id="652941" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ashwini-Deshpande">Ashwini Deshpande</keyword>, Co-founder and Director, Elephant Design: <div type="image" title="Ashwini Deshpande." msid="80021339" hostid="261"></div> I, me, myself: The time of accepting DIY is upon us due to the pandemic. Ways to achieve self-sustenance would be the big focus as far as individuals are concerned. This is true for physical as well as mental well-being. Though #weareinthistogether has been trending, what it really means is we are actually apart at the same time. Each of us has a different story, different challenges, and diverse ways to tackle them. We have discovered our limitations this year. Next year will be to push those boundaries &amp; surprise ourselves with new discoveries about ourselves. Products, services, experiences &amp; entertainment that help achieve self-sustenance will flourish even further. Kiran Khadke, Co-founder &amp; Creative Head - Hyper Connect Asia: <div type="image" title="Kiran, Hyper Connect" msid="80021389" hostid="261"></div> Minimalism and inclusivity Last few years, the design trends in the industry were defined with minimalism, muted elegance, and flat iconography with bold flavours of inclusiveness and equality. In 2021, these trends will continue to push the boundaries further, however, with heightened impact of COVID, the trend will add elements of Optimism &amp; Local Community Flavours to the design trend and as designers play more with bright positive designs across communication, packaging, and other large facets of design such as architecture... The wave of positive vibe only will dominate the design trends along with rich flavours from local sub-cultures in the coming year. Shashwat Das, Founder, Almond Branding: <div type="image" title="Shashwat" msid="80021351" hostid="261"></div> Shift to muted-colour range After the most unpredictable and uncertain year in the history of mankind, when you think of predicting a trend for the upcoming year, it soubrands like a daunting task. I think one of the common elements between both of my favorite subjects - Marketing and Design, is that they both start with understanding the consumer’s need. And after such a chaotic year, where there is no going back to the “normal” as we knew it, I think the year 2021 should be dedicated to understanding the consumer all over again. There is so much that has changed in her life amid this pandemic. Her outlook towards health and wellness has evolved as the year has pushed her into re-evaluating her diets and lifestyle. She has become increasingly aware about the environment and is willing to take a far more active approach in doing something for it. So, in the upcoming year, it's time to step back and align ourselves with these changing priorities and needs. The environment around us is reacting to the events from the unique year that has gone by. And Brand Design is no different. I am envisioning brands moving towards more muted colour schemes as opposed to the neon rage that had taken on the digital world. The muted colour schemes are more natural, safe and soothing, something that reflects the mood of the consumer in the post-covid world. I am looking at more motion logos (likes of Google revamped logo) that engages the consumer better. I can also see more and more digital platforms and apps offering the dark mode in the coming year. It enhances visual ergonomics that can help us stay more focused on our work and reduce eye-strain. Ashutosh Karkhanis, Creative Head and Managing Partner, Open Strategy and Design: <div type="image" title="Image 2_Ashutosh Karkhanis, Creative Head and Managing Partner, Open Strategy and Design.jpeg (1)" msid="80044744" hostid="261"></div> Humanizing of digital experiences Major events help hasten all sorts of changes. The pandemic forced mass adoption of ideas and concepts which existed on fringes. Remote working, digital tools, e-commerce etc. all became mainstream and the default way of doing things. When usage scales up, is when the next phase of evolution starts. Zoom was well-designed for occasional use, but the moment it became the default mode of communication, it led to ‘Zoom fatigue’. I believe that we will increasingly see design stepping in to help look at these experiences from a more human and social lens, thereby pushing the quality of experience. Zoom and the likes will evolve beyond productivity and design keeping the social dynamics of work in mind. E-commerce will need to design for discovery and excitement of shopping, not just ease and convenience." Any time of great change is an opportunity for design to step in and guide the way. This is one of those times. I am personally very excited.

Design: The trends to watch out for in 2021

<ul><li>While the ad industry has a lot of womentoday, many drop out by the time they reach mid-management levels, primarily due to the lack of flexible hours, or the flexibility to work from home.</li><li>The women leaders we spoke to believe organizations need to prioritize training more women, to prepare them for leadership roles, and this should be a part of the company’s culture.</li><li>There is also a need to relook at the way employee’s performances are evaluated, coming up with newer ways of assessing talent in a time where the way of doing business has seen a complete overhaul.</li></ul> In late 2019, a report by Credit Suisse stated that women’s representation in boardrooms in India increased only by 4.3% between 2014 and 2019. The report further stated that the current female representation on boards is only 15.2% which invariably led to dialogues around the conspicuous lack of women leaders in the upper rungs of the corporate world. Having said that, the world of advertising, marketing and media is one industry that has seen a lot of women in roles of leadership. While we are still far from an equal man-woman ratio in the industry, it is heartening to see more and more women take the top spots. Conversations with most women leaders from the industry led us to believe that this is an industry that welcomes women to be a part of the workforce. However, it is during their mid-career levels that a lot of women drop out of the workforce, leading to a dip in women who take up higher positions. We reached out to some of the most influential women in the industry currently, to gauge what are the reasons for these drop-outs, and what needs to be done, as an industry as well at individual organizational levels, to ensure that women are retained, and even if they drop-out, are encouraged to rejoin the workforce. We received an overwhelming response to our queries from across the sector from women who made some really compelling points. These women who feel passionately about the subject laid their hearts bare, telling us ways they think the industry can evolve, to become more inclusive. Here are some of the most prominent voices. Building a culture of inclusivity It is often noticed that while a lot of women are joining the workforce, many of them take the decision of quitting once they decide to get married or decide to have children. Many find it difficult to come back, due to the lack of flexible working hours at their workplaces, or even due to a certain amount of judgment where people look at them a little differently after they come back from a long break. Most of the women leaders we spoke to believe that the work culture needs to evolve a little, to make way for such women, giving them the flexibility that many of them need, once they start a family. <keyword id="4356726" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="srija-chatterjee">Srija Chatterjee</keyword>, Managing Director, Publicis Worldwide, India shared that while a few corporates have started giving some assistance to women, the ad industry hasn’t yet started doing that actively. “As an industry, we have woken up to women leaders and we are trying to make things happen for women, to make sure that they don't jump off from the workforce. However, there's still a long way to go. The biggest reason women stop working is when they get into that life stage of having children. A lot of corporates are today providing strong support, through office crèches or flexi-timing options. That has not yet happened in our industry. From a business perspective, the size of our agencies might not be that big, which makes implementing this a bit of a challenge. But the more and more we get into a group structure, and offices become more centralized, it will enable organizations to look at shared resources to help women pursue their passion. This is something that could be done, but has not been done yet.” A lot of times, there is also a lot of judgement involved when women come back to work after a long break. Delving deeper into the need for a change in attitude, Pallavi Chakravarti, Executive Creative Director, Taproot Dentsu said, “You’ve been out of the scene way too long - you can’t expect the salary that you do after the kind of leave you’ve taken - but won’t your attention be divided now?” These are just some of the things women hear when they are seeking to make their way back into the workforce, post a long gap. Of course, this is not a blanket statement - times are changing, mindsets are changing, as are corporate policies. But if companies truly want to be gender-neutral then statements and questions like the ones I’ve cited above would never be heard again. Additionally, flexible working hours, working from home, working on time-bound projects are all steps that more and more organisations can adopt to ensure equal opportunities. And when I say equal, I mean that these options should be made available to both men and women. Shedding some light on how OLX is working on retaining some of its women, Sapna Arora, Chief Marketing Officer, OLX India said, “Setting the right example of favourable work culture much suited to women, not just in terms of facilities and infrastructure, but also in terms of broadening our thinking within an organization across various levels, is the key to inspire women working population to join the workforce and perform better. OLX, as an organization, is working on taking baby steps in creating empowering workplace for women. A couple of years ago, we at OLX embarked on a journey to evaluate the gender diversity ratio and actively worked to encourage more women in roles such as data scientists, engineers, front line sales and more. This is a conscious choice we have made under our global diversity and inclusion programme which seeks to improve the gender ratio across STEM and leadership roles.” Talking about the need to prioritize diversity in leadership, Emrana Sheikh, Enterprise HR Head for India and South Asia – Johnson &amp; Johnson said, “Today, companies are increasingly equating their C-suite diversity to competitive advantage for their businesses – and rightly so, it leads to robust dialogue, richer decisions and the empathy to design good, and human-centered solutions. For organizations looking for a paradigm shift in their work cultures, C-suite diversity sets an example for the rest of the team. At the basic level, it can be a source of inspiration that resonates down to the front-line staff. This is only possible when diversity in the leadership is prioritized and its long-term implementation is ensured at all levels through intentionality and focused talent management. Internal platforms such as Diversity &amp; Inclusion Council and Employee Resource Groups further drive culture strategies from a variety of lenses, championing inclusivity as a collective goal across levels. An inclusive culture transcends barriers, bias and bureaucracy, and makes the employees truly feel that they belong. All around, women are a critical mass of consumers, influencers, stakeholders and communities. Hence, reflection of the same in organizations is a business imperative.” Sharing a similar sentiment, Neena Dasgupta, CEO and Director, Zirca Digital Solutions added, “Organizations need to ensure that women in the workplace are respected and recognized.For women to thrive in the workplace, organizations need to ensure an environment that is rooted in equal opportunity and a culture that is geared to assist women achieve their goals.” Sharing some tips on a few things that can be done at the organization level to help women continue to be a part of an organization, Ayesha Ghosh, General Manager, Taproot Dentsu added, “Younger women need to see older women in positions of influence. Flexible working hours and working from home might be a challenge in an industry that’s made a virtue of unreasonable working hours but we ought to be non-negotiable about starting early, cutting idle chatter, short lunch breaks and everything else that helps finish work early so that parents (and everyone else, really!) get to spend some time with their families. Ingraining fundamental values will go a much longer way than making token gestures. Enforcing paternity leave, for instance, so that the onus of child-rearing is not on the mother alone. When a parent, regardless of gender is expected to manage time such that they are responsible for their work as well as for their families, everyone will automatically spend less time on idle chatter and work a lot more efficiently.” An organization's culture also needs to have empathy at its foundation, shared Oindrila Roy, Head of Strategy, India, Essence, to make a difference. "As with any type of workforce integration, empathy should be the edifice on which workplaces are designed to integrate and retain both women and men more seamlessly. For women, it starts with stepping into her shoes, evaluating challenges from her point of view and arriving at solutions which are conducive. For example, an online survey conducted by JobsForHer found that 38% of women do not return to the workforce after giving birth, due to the lack of good day care for children. If that is the challenge, companies need to think of solving this problem innovatively - can the organisation collaborate with a nanny service provider to avail reliable childcare options to its employees? Reassured and empowered parents are likely to stay in the workforce longer." Modifying existing performance benchmarks Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India believes that there is a need to relook at the performance benchmarks on which employees are evaluated. “In the middle years, I often see that we are trying to evaluate people on certain benchmarks. The criteria for these performance indicators have been put in place years ago when it was a largely male-dominated workforce. Things like 8 hours of work, or work in office, or if you want a senior position, you should have worked in different geographies etc. But sometimes, for women, it becomes very difficult to be mobile and move to different parts of the country, especially once they get married. As an industry, we really need to re-evaluate the criteria. We should look for quality now, if people are curious, if they are team-players, how innovative and out-of-the-box can they think. If these changes are brought about, a lot of women will find it easier to catch up from where they left, even if they are coming back after a long break.” Treating both men and women as equals at the workplace A lot of women leaders feel that there is an immediate need to start looking at both men and women as equals in the workspace and not differentiate on the basis of gender. Lara Balsara Wajifdar, Executive Director at Madison World said, “We need to look at women leaders as leaders first and not as women leaders. Don’t differentiate us on the basis of our gender, but differentiate us on the basis of our work! Our industry is always hungry for good talent and if the talent is good, the agency will always accommodate personal requests as long as the work is not affected.” Many also feel the starting point is to start a conversation, where both the genders are treated as equal participants. “<keyword id="6372584" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="gender-equality">Gender equality</keyword> is not just a women’s issue, it’s a human rights issue – that extends to all realms, including the workplace. To encourage equality across all lines of command in the workplace and have more women leaders, we need more men to be equal participants in the conversation around gender equality. Having the male workforce as partners can bring empowerment and equal respect among all genders. Global change-making initiatives like the UN’s ‘He for She’ Movement, of which I am a strong advocate, have been setting strong examples for people of all genders to take bold steps in solidarity and are working towards a gender-equal world,” said <keyword id="235731" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nadia-Chauhan">Nadia Chauhan</keyword>, JMD &amp; CMO, Parle Agro. Pointing out to some things that need to be done at an organizational level, Rishika Lulla Singh, CEO Eros Digital at Eros International said, “There needs to be a cultural shift and change at workplaces to eradicate gender inequality and retain women employees. It is about time that companies consider deserving women for higher level positions and evaluate their performance sans bias. If there are more women leaders out there at the top positions, it gives a sense of confidence to the global sisterhood with strong role models. It is essential that companies organize mentorship programs to break the stereotype of what a man and a woman can or should do. There are several ways to retain a woman employee at work, but we also need to encourage more women to join the workforce. Equal pay, ensuring all voices are heard and feeling valued, creating safe work environment, etc. are all the least we can do.” Pooja Jauhari, CEO, The Glitch put it rather succinctly in her three-point recommendation on how to retain women. She said, “Firstly, treat your entire talent base with gender blindness. Best person for the job. Without over-thinking their family, marital, ‘emotional’ status. Just get the right person for the job. Secondly, allow your talent to align personal and professional goals and build a support system for them to come back to the same position at work after a break (marriage| child birth) and lastly, stop saying a certain gender matters more, prove by example by showing gender balance across functions.” Training young employees to think of themselves as leaders There is also a need for seniors to build an environment of motivating young women while also making them aware of their potential as future managers, shared Sujata Dwibedy, Group Trading Director, Ampilifi India. She said, “This question is asked to mostly senior women but ideally, both senior men, women and the entire team should be equally responsible to motivate the young, efficient women. The entire organisation gains if they can train and then retain competent women leading up to a management role. It is critical to show them advancement opportunities and their growth path. Policies might have to be tweaked but if it benefits all, it should not matter. Building an inclusive workplace, an organisational environment that values diversity not just for the sake of appearances but for the competitive edge that comes with access to multiple perspectives would make a difference.” There are a lot of internal barriers that women have to cross and training them to believe in themselves could help in ensuring they make it to the top. <keyword id="346168" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lulu-Raghavan">Lulu Raghavan</keyword>, Managing Director, Landor Associates said, “Even before thinking of getting more women leaders, we have to think of how we can create a better working place holistically. Secondly, you have to ensure that women at the top, doing good work get the visibility. It starts with the leadership, company philosophy and culture. You’ve got to find them and put them on the top because deserving women do exist. You can’t give us an excuse that there aren’t any women relevant for the top positions. A lot of training has to be done with women themselves; there are a few external barriers such as company policies, work environment, how other people behave towards you, and there are internal factors, which we women have set up through the years. It is the lack of self-confidence, self-doubt and imposter syndrome. We women have to be trained to be leaders. It should be different from the overall management chain because it is decades of social conditioning that companies have to break when women join them. “ Anita Kotwani, Senior Vice President, New Business, Mindshare added, “The industry needs to first acknowledge that Woman leaders can deliver as well as their male counterparts for senior-level roles. The grooming required should be done for the role and not the gender. If that happens you will see the necessary shift with more woman leaders leading the mantle.” Sharing her optimism about the future where she envisions more and more women to be on the top, Kranti Gada, COO Shemaroo Entertainment said, “A few years ago, I participated in a program called ‘Tanmatra’ organized by IIM Bangalore, to help develop and groom fellow women counterparts for about 9 months and the stories I heard about the differences in opportunities shocked me a little. I was happy to be at Shemaroo, where we have seen women in key roles leading from the front and managing the core business with ease and expertise. While the ratio of women is a little skewed in the industry, the gender gap is narrowing, and we will see more women taking charge in future in every field.”

Making the industry more gender-inclusive: Women leaders show us the way

<ul><li>The pandemic has completely changed how and where we work, forcing companies to be more flexible and to imbibe contemporary ways of working. </li><li>As businesses seek to return to some form of pre-Covid buoyancy and start to think about the right mix of work-from-home and work-from-office, they can't just return to their former workplaces without reimagining the experience in its entirety for employees.</li><li>At some point, companies will have to go back to their office and collaborate physically.</li><li>So, as companies rethink workspace design for a post-COVID world, we reached out to a few design experts to understand how the concept of workspaces has changed after COVID-19 and what the future offices would look like once we resume normalcy. </li></ul>It was in this month last year that India found its first few patients of Coronavirus and who knew the world would never be the same again. What followed was a bunch of emails from our HR teams announcing cancellations of conferences, there was a ban on international flights and uncertainty started lurking around. A few days later, on March 24, 2020, PM Narendra Modi ordered a nation-wide lockdown. With it, offices and public transport was shut down and all Indian companies had to shift their operations onto a cloud and start working from home. A year later, we are used to working from home in our pajamas and jumping from one Zoom call to another has become our daily routine. We will soon have to bid adieu to many privileges that work-from-home has offered us and a recent rant by Instagram user Harjas Sethi highlighted these advantages of working remotely. Her video quickly went viral for its highly relatable content. Even organisations have realised that the lockdown was a boon in a way of demonstrating that remote working can be a success as it reduces capital and operational costs. However, with the roll-out of the COVID vaccine and a dip in infection rate than before, many organisations have started slowly returning to offices and some have started planning to make their environment more comfortable and safe for their employees when they do return to work at full occupancy. Businesses are trying to figure out the right balance between work from home and office. The traditional approach of everyone having their own desk is now gone, perhaps forever. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How organisations and agencies are preparing for this new world order" text="How organisations and agencies are preparing for this new world order">How organisations and agencies are preparing for this new world order</cmsannotation> With vaccines being rolled out later this year, companies are planning to combine work-from-home and work-from-office to make the future of the workplace hybrid. Kiran Khadke, Co-Founder &amp; Creative Head of Hyper Connect Asia has made up his mind about adopting a hybrid-model post-pandemic. He said, “We are actually rethinking the way we would conduct our office. The whole WFH situation made us realize that a lot of things can be managed over a video call. So in the times to come, we plan to work on a hybrid model, where not everyone has to come to the office every day. Teams will have to plan their office meets, to align crucial projects and then they can WFH Considering this, we will have a flexible office structure with more conference rooms, spaces for collaboration and no fixed workstations. With that, we are also getting our tech upgraded to be able to work from anywhere.” Shashwat Das of Almond Branding helped us look at the brighter side of 2020. He had always dreamt of running a location-independent business, where his employees can work remotely from anywhere in the world as long as they are connected virtually, and his dream seems more achievable now. He said, “Earlier, one of the purposes of an office was access to shared infrastructure like computers, printers, xerox machines, etc. Now with documents moving to cloud with secured access, the focus shifts to building social bonds, foster corporate culture and host clients. While the trend of paperless offices was just picking up, the pandemic has fast tracked the transformation by leaps and bounds. Some of our traditional style working clients, who would otherwise insist on an invoice hardcopy citing audit reasons, have now become comfortable with e-invoices. That’s such a good news for us and mother earth. I think work from anywhere rather than WFH will be the future.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Rethinking design for open space offices and co-working spaces" text="Rethinking design for open space offices and co-working spaces">Rethinking design for <keyword id="10851343" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="open-space-offices">open space offices</keyword> and co-working spaces </cmsannotation> Even if employees do go to the office for 3 days a week, businesses can't just return to their former workplaces without reimagining the experience in its entirety for employees. Co-working spaces have already taken a hit as employees don’t feel safe sharing desks and common areas with unknown people as they used to do earlier. Before COVID, the advertising industry had the culture of working out of open spaces. There are many Indian agencies like Leo Burnett, 82.5 Communications who didn't believe in having glasses and closed spaces in their offices. However, to facilitate social distancing, it is now important to rethink interiors of our offices and add more walls. So, how should they go about redesigning their offices? Ashwini Deshpande, Co-founder &amp; Director, Elephant Design, answered,“It is very difficult for me to visualize how people work in cubicles or glass spaces inside tall towers. We chose to work out of Pune for better quality of life and air. Our studios are spread across two bungalows and an open space in-between. We have a casual outdoor cafe and many other outdoor nooks. No matter where you are working, an open outdoor space with greenery and wifi is always a few steps away. Agencies should move to open spaces outside Mumbai. This may sound radical, but going back to my earlier point, companies need to create spaces just for those activities that need to be done together and not for anything that is perfectly done remote.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="What should the offices of future look like" text="What should the offices of future look like">What should the offices of future look like</cmsannotation> Following the pandemic, new considerations have come to light. The future of work will be new: environment-friendly, technologically-advanced and inclusive. Telling us what the <keyword id="10851341" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="future-of-offices">future of offices</keyword> should look like, Deshpande said, “We need to begin by rethinking the role of a fixed office/ workspace post pandemic. Work from home seems to have served well for most creative agencies besides many others. Every organization has had to rethink the workspace design. But only few would be able to change things significantly. I know of smaller studios, media teams, animation &amp; editing set-ups, publication houses, restaurants, coaching classes completely switching to remote working having given up their workspaces. Hybrid ways of working are being devised and spaces are being reimagined around activities that need people to come to office." Businesses are being advised to transfer physical records that dominate the workspace onto a digital cloud and rethink furniture that can prevent safe social distancing. Apart from altering physical social-gathering spaces like buffet sections and conference rooms, designing is also about developing a future-ready organisation that isn’t just about the physical space. Businesses need to apply design thinking into their daily operations to build a great working environment and connect office design to brand. After COVID, according to Lulu Raghavan, Managing Director, Landor &amp; Fitch India, the most progressive businesses will be thinking about the six imperatives of Workspace Design: culture, interaction, function, sustainability, architecture and technology. Raghavan said, “Workspace design is a deeper discipline and mindset that connects office design to brand. It dictates the journey, the overall experience and ensures that the brand’s values and function are reflected in the physical, human and digital space, much like retail. A well thought-through strategy on Workspace Design could help businesses to forge stronger relationships with their employees who in turn will become great brand ambassadors.” As uncertainty still continues to haunt our office corridors and our open-desks, it will be a challenge for companies to continue to foster their corporate culture and practices like employee training and development. Puneet Pandey, Strategy Head and Managing Partner, Open Strategy and Design said the element of uncertainty has been the biggest challenge that the pandemic imposed on our deeply inter-connected worlds. Pandey said, “Creating ‘physically distanced cohesion’ is going to be the trickiest problem to solve for business leaders in their organisations. Especially now that we are already a year into the post-pandemic world. There will be newer teams and newer expected behaviours and a whole lot of social tentativeness to punctuate an otherwise seamless flow of interactions inside our work-cultures. A sharply defined and well-designed internal culture acts as the internal compass and a vital behaviour guide, that make us hive-creatures continue to create and build even in the face of tentativeness Going forward, while organisations rethink their physical/virtual workspaces, leaders will place a lot more emphasis on communicating sharply defined cultural values within their organisation. This ‘cultural software’ will be key in ensuring predictable and productive outcomes possible in the coming times. " There will still be room for Zoom calls and virtual brainstorming sessions. Khadke said, “The future of offices should purely be a place to collaborate, to overcome the challenges that we face while working online. It may no longer be an everyday thing. Every aspect of the office (Design, Furniture, Tech, Facilities etc.) will be defined around this.” Using new technologies to facilitate social-distancing will be one of the key goals for organisations rethinking their workspace design. Das said, “Post the pandemic, hygiene considerations reign high and touch-free technology is going to become increasingly important in workspaces. Companies are re-imagining elevator designs and security access. They may also adopt a health screening process at the security gates. As more companies adopt the concept of remote working, decentralisation is an eventuality. Instead of asking everyone to travel to a single headquarter building, companies will have satellite offices or hubs that allow employees greater flexibility and choice. Simple practices like more frequent and visible cleaning schedules might contribute to a feeling of safety. Air-filters are getting installed in offices and regular air-quality assessments will become more important.” Experts said that the future-workspace design needs to be flexible enough to quickly adopt to meet tenant needs. Modularised designs will help in managing fluctuations in employee strength and technology will play an increasingly critical role in offices of tomorrow.

How are Indian organisations and agencies redesigning their office spaces for a post-COVID world

<ul><li>After the global pandemic, <keyword id="49089" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sustainability" source="Orion">sustainability</keyword> and health seem to have become important factors for consumers.</li><li>According to Capgemini’s recent report, consumers engage more readily with brands and retailers that they perceive to be sustainable and genuinely committed to green practices.</li><li>The report found that 48% of consumers share an emotional connection with products or organizations that demonstrate eco-friendly qualities.</li><li>As we move forward this year and health concerns and sustainability continue influencing consumer decisions, we speak to brands, research and design agencies about how brands can integrate sustainability into their core values and move beyond mere lip-service.</li></ul>It might be a new year but the world continues to grapple with familiar challenges and threats: we are on the verge of entering the third wave of COVID-19, the country’s capital, New Delhi is currently facing alarmingly high levels of indoor air pollution and Uttarakhand's forest fires emitted nearly 0.2 megatonnes of carbon in the past one month, a record since 2003 (CAMS report). So 2022 will clearly be a busy year for brands as consumers get more serious about climate change and expect brands to increase their focus on living sustainably in harmony with nature. While businesses exist to make money, Manish Chowdhary, Co-CEO, Body Cupid Pvt Limited says that there are two ways to do that. He explained, “One is sustainable, by keeping other living and non-living things in mind. The other one is inspired by greed. So no matter how small a brand’s effort may be, it has to be aligned with sustainability if the brand wants to continue in the long run. Brands exist for consumers and it is important that we listen to what they want.” From driving workforce diversity to taking a stand on climate change, there’s a definite change that has taken place in consumer expectations. In the last few years, sustainability has become one of the biggest decision-making factors for consumers, and more so after the pandemic. They have realised that mother earth has suffered enough. In this digital world, consumers are demanding more transparency and are quick to call out greenwashing. They are expecting to see concrete actions. And as Chowdhary said, it has become imperative for brands to listen to what consumers want because they exist to serve consumers. Today’s consumers are not only pivoting towards more sustainable products but are also willing to pay a premium for them. Gen Z and Millennials lead all other age groups in this respect. When shopping for groceries, 72% of Gen Z and 66% of Millennials say they are willing to pay more for organic foods and in fact, did so the last time they were grocery shopping, compared to 56% of Boomers, found Capgemini. Its recent report said that 80% of consumers want to contribute to the fight to save the planet for future generations. And it is not just a phase. 70% of consumers agreed that post-pandemic, they will be more careful in terms of maintaining and protecting their personal health. Covid has only reminded us that there is a long way to go on sustainability. On how the pandemic has altered consumer behaviour, Lulu Raghavan, Managing Director, Landor and Fitch said, “The pandemic has fundamentally shifted consumer behaviour. An IBM study shows that 93% of consumers have changed their views on sustainability after the pandemic. This is totally understandable. The horrid virus which came out of nowhere has ravaged lives, ruined livelihoods. The only silver lining is that it has woken us up to the paramount importance of our own health and wellbeing and that of our Mother Earth. Sustainability is now a definitive transformative force that will upend existing industries and create new ones. If digital transformation was the buzzword in corporate boardrooms, ECG will take centre stage in the coming decade.” But what exactly is a sustainable brand? Ashwini Deshpande, Co-Founder and Director, Elephant Design defines it as, “A brand that values ethical sourcing and supply chains, is inclusive, and follows environment-friendly processes and materials while staying viable for its stakeholders is qualified to be labelled as a sustainable brand.” Kartik Johari, VP, Marketing &amp; Commerce, Nobel Hygiene believes that in the coming months, people will start to question what is sustainable and what is not along with how we can continue to reduce our carbon footprint across all aspects of our lives. He said, “Consumers at the end of it are people and they expect what is good. The ‘brand promise’ is essential to them. Now, alongside they are also making space for the environment due to excellent work by activists and journalists around the world. You will remember, for example, that riveting photo of a straw stuck in a turtle's nose. How many millions of turtles have we lost to this? Yet it took just that one photo to break through the global psyche. Now straws are the Number One environmental enemy. But this does not mean the onus should be entirely on people to choose better! Companies have to improve their offering. And that is correct for consumers to expect. Moreover, important to note, there are some 50 or 60 companies in the world, which are responsible for majority of emissions. Strong regulations on them can solve what collectively 500 million people may have to do. But who’s going to bell the cat? As Mr Musk rightly has been saying that, give the solar industry the same amount of subsidies, for a year, that you give to oil and gas, and see the amount of transformative change it brings! The onus cannot be on that one little end consumer and their war to save their environment.” During the pandemic, brands like WOW Skin Science, Diageo and Dettol launched eco-friendly packaging to test the waters, indicating that more brands in India have started reevaluating their packaging strategy to put the environment first. Big FMCG companies such as Marico, HUL, Nestle India, Future Consumer, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-co, Parle Agro also announced in 2020 that they will move to 100% recyclable packaging by 2025 helping towards a sustainable future. Joining the bandwagon, the Indian Government has also started its efforts towards reducing our country’s carbon footprint. Currently, India is the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, after the US and China. According to an Assocham and PwC report, landfills are brimming with so much urban waste that by 2050, India is reportedly going to need a landfill that's the size of its capital, New Delhi. And consumers aren’t ignoring these horrifying numbers anymore. Elysha Young, Trends Manager, Mintel APAC said, "India’s Prime Minister has pledged it will reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, backed by aggressive 2030 targets. By laying the groundwork in the form of policies, India is signaling that it is open and willing to support innovation around sustainability, and indeed that carbon-emitting industries will no longer be tolerated. This presents an opportunity for global companies looking to tap into India's vast population but also issues a challenge to foreign and domestic companies to ensure they are cutting emissions throughout their value chain. It's in India's self-interest to stem global warming, with the nation of 1.3 billion people being one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The nature of the short-term targets means that action will need to be taken immediately, which will see a strong focus on renewable energy sources like solar and wind power, as well as the batteries needed to store such energy. Companies would do well to look at the emissions within their own value chains and determine where cuts can be made. Communicating these to consumers will help them to make choices that align with the national strategy; the opportunity exists to ensure consumers feel like they're also doing their bit." In 2022, brands that snooze will definitely lose More and more consumers are becoming aware of their choices and realising that whether it is a worn-out piece of mask they decide to throw or a sanitary napkin or even as simple as a plain t-shirt, never really goes ‘away.’ It all ends up in a landfill. Human activities are clearly harming the global environment and brands have no choice but to migrate to sustainable solutions and work towards building a circular economy. So, in 2022, if brands don’t switch, they lose consumers, investors, and all stakeholders. Chowdhary said, “At the industry level, there is nothing without sustainability. The consumers of today are conscious and aware. They know the choices they are making. So if companies &amp; brands do not opt for sustainable practices, eventually the smart consumers are going to make a switch. We can only expect the awareness to grow and actions to increase, especially with the challenges that our planet is facing today.” Anjali Malthankar, National Strategy Director, Tonic Worldwide sees sustainability as one of the big topics in 2022 – right from fashion, green products, green living to electric vehicles, every category will be touched by sustainability filter. She said, “If the brands have already not made sustainability part of their commitment in any form yet, it’s high time they join the eco-wakening movement. Consumers are already looking for some form of reassurance or the other from brands in terms of conscious behaviour, as consumers are at different stages of adoption – it is a mix of curious, concerned, and advocates. At the very least, they are looking to not feel guilty about consuming the brand. Conscious living, mindful living, Green living, purposeful living are all the buzz words in communications today. For brands it is inevitable to have sustainability as a larger goal.” It is not just the environment and consumers who benefit from eco-friendly practices, businesses with low carbon footprints are more likely to have a better brand image and can easily woo consumers. Deep Bajaj, CEO &amp; Co-Founder, Sirona Hygiene said, “Companies are realizing that being conscious of their environmental impact can benefit them in every manner possible. Consumers desire sustainability owing to the ailing earth. Companies that work to become more environmentally responsible, not only contribute to a better future, but also establish a progressive brand image, happier employees, and a loyal client base. Consumers are real people who are affected by real environmental issues on a daily basis. They are aware that it is no longer limited to textbooks and that industrial activities have a direct impact on their daily lives. As a result, what goes into the making of a product and what goes inside it is extremely important to them. Other than environmental consciousness, they expect transparency from brands.” While brands in India have already started taking baby steps towards converting their business into a sustainable choice for consumers, we will get to witness more demonstrable actions in 2022. And those who fail to prioritise mother earth, will have to face consumers’ wrath. Deshpande said, “The emerging consumer base of millennials &amp; Gen Z is not a forgiving lot when it comes to ethics or ecology being compromised by a brand. But others are not quite as aware and may base their decision only on factors like price or convenience above sustainability. There is no choice. It is a survival mandate for a brand to become sustainable. Otherwise, we will see every resource being depleted in the next few decades.” Kantar BrandZ data shows that brands with weak purpose grow 70% but brands with strong purpose grow 175%. At the same time, India is still a price-sensitive country and consumers stick to the convenience of buying what you are used to. So, on how brands can move beyond mere lip-service and greenwashing this year, Raghvan suggested, “Use innovation to develop products developed against that purpose. Embrace design thinking across the board. Embed a new mindset deeply in the culture and transform from within. Communicate and evangelise with consumers." In 2022, experts are confident that brands will embrace sustainability that will benefit people, planet and profit.

Is 2022 the year when Indian brands will get more serious about sustainability?

<ul><li>In our latest series, we look at different industries to understand what 2021 was like for them and crystal gaze into the upcoming year, identifying some of the trends that will set the tone for 2022.</li><li>We speak to Design Gurus to find out trends that 2022 has in store for us.</li></ul>Each year brings along shifts in trends and the year 2021, in particular, brought a faster pace of changes in marketing strategies, product design and execution -- opening up a huge window for innovation and experimentation. It pushed all brands and agencies to think on their feet. Everyone had to go back to the drawing board to think of new ways to communicate with consumers as they started demanding products that are designed in comforting and sustainable ways with smart features that offer convenience and personalisation. Consumers’ outlook towards their health and wellness also evolved as the pandemic pushed them to re-evaluate their lifestyle. They have become increasingly aware of climate change and are willing to take an active approach to do something about it. They are also expecting brands to act as agents of change, be more transparent about the raw material they use and act sustainably. So, in 2021, brands like Colgate, Diageo, WOW launched paper-based packaging and started keeping sustainability at the center of their products. With this trend, it is no doubt that all purchase decisions in the future will be completely driven by a product’s packaging material. Apart from a product’s ingredients, brands will be required to explain their recycling process too to attract consumers. As per a recent study conducted across Asia, <a href="https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2821-consumers-relationships-brands.html">consumers</a> are paying attention to a product's environmental impact, and affordability and quality were still the main driving factors behind a vast majority of purchases. As a result, product designs have changed in the last two years. Brands have increased their focus on the ‘safety’ aspect of product packaging and design. And as consumers looked for ways to escape from reality, elements of optimism and local community flavours took center stage in the product design industry. Brands played more with bright, positive designs across communication, packaging, and other large facets of brand architecture. With the arrival of Meta, the growth of artificial intelligence will also accelerate across the globe and brands will integrate AI into their product design. As the year draws to a close, we speak to design gurus to find out what challenges lie ahead and a few trends that would monopolize the marketing world in 2022. Here is what experts had to say: Lulu Raghavan, Managing Director, Landor &amp; Fitch India: The design trend that has accelerated sharply in the past few years and that will explode and firmly take hold in 2022 is sustainable design. This is because of the perfect storm of environmental consciousness coupled with a desire for meaning that most of us as designers and creatives are experiencing. The pandemic sharply exposed the horrors of climate change to us. It made us sit up and think hard about humanity’s collective actions that have contributed to the unprecedented global warming that has been creeping up slowly but surely in the past several decades. Whether it was the forest fires in Australia, the Winter storms in Texas, the devastating flooding in Maharashtra or the many other extreme weather events that popped up around the world with alarming regularity, we were choked beyond words and stirred up to think about how we got here in the first place. The pandemic also created existential angst as we were stuck at home, attending to our daily routines, wondering about the purpose of our lives. This search for meaning has made us question everything from mindless consumption to what success means. As a result, as designers, we will be consciously re-examining every problem we are given to solve. We will more fervently be looking through the lens of sustainability for better answers towards the greater good. Whether we will be designing new products, new spaces, new packs or creating new brands, we will be thinking hard about sustainable design solutions that can do their small but important bit for our planet. A Appadurai, Country Manager for the HP Indigo: The labels and packaging industry in India is on an upward growth trajectory bolstered by the rapid expansion of organized retail, the growth of exports, and India’s rising e-commerce sector and start-ups. Furthermore, consumer behaviour has massively transformed post the pandemic. Consumers are demanding brands to be more secure, culturally and environmentally responsible and provide consumer experiences that are in sync with the brand purpose. In the future, offerings will be tailored not just to stated preferences, but also behaviour. This has made packaging a critical touchpoint to base purchase decisions on, and the industry must adapt how they can optimize their packaging to meet the upcoming trends to meet customer expectations. In the years to come starting 2022, personalized and innovative packaging will help keep customers highly engaged with the brand thereby establishing greater brand affinity. Therefore, ‘packvertising’ is an effective tool that marketers can use to strike a chord with their end consumers. Moreover, with increase in online shopping, the threat of counterfeit products is growing. By 2022, counterfeiting is projected to cost the global economy US$4.2 trillion^ This will require vigilance and continued investment in new solutions - like serialization, invisible inks, track &amp; trance, and origination software to protect them from counterfeit packaging vulnerabilities. Brands are discovering massive cost benefits of On Demand Packaging / Printing against the traditional Scale of Economy Print &amp; store model because of the rapid changes that happens in the market. Agility and time to market have become super important for brands today and On demand printing / packaging exactly helps in the cause. Most importantly, consumers today are more aware of the kind of products that they use and the brands they are associated with. They are environmentally more conscious which has driven up the demand for holistically sustainable goods. Marketers must therefore increase their focus on sustainable printing &amp; green packaging. To claim sustainability proof points, brands must examine the entire lifecycle of the packaging, including its use in supply chain, basic function, marketing, usefulness to the consumer and recyclability. This should also involve examining the packaging’s credentials under the three common pillars of sustainability: people, planet, and profit. One approach which can help incorporate all these elements into an integrated strategy for sustainable packaging is carbon-footprint labelling. A carbon-footprint label shows the product’s carbon footprint from manufacturing, through use right up to eventual disposal. Ashwini Deshpande, Co-Founder &amp; Director, Elephant Design: Connected for better: That would be my key prediction for the coming year. Mobility, retail, gadgets, personal/ home care, and foods - everything will see a surge in use of technology to understand users/ consumers better. Every product, service and brand will try to understand usage patterns by embedding codes or chips to gather data more than ever. Products will also be built to communicate with each other to gather data indirectly. Such products will also help consumers understand supply source, fair practices, carbon footprint etc. Increased awareness towards sustainability, well-being of self and the environment would largely be the drivers. There are many parallel developments happening across material sciences, manufacturing technology and embedded electronics happening across the world. All these come together to create better products for the connected world. Kiran Khadke, Co-founder and Creative Head, Hyper Connect: While most of 2020 &amp; 2021 went blah! It continued to keep the creative &amp; digital studios on their toes to keep UX at the core and keep products minimal, clean, user-focussed and simple. While AR/VR was still finding their footing and voice led product experiences was still nascent and un-integrated with the overall product. In 2022, there will be a quantum leap, creative &amp; digital studios will have to integrate deeper with tech developers and analysts to create experiences for the new digital paradigm like Metaverse, Serl.io, Uhive and likes… The new paradigm of product design would need to consider 3D, multi-dimension, Voice, AR, VR integrated together seamlessly to create a real-like experience in the growing virtual world. The next wave for advertising agencies is to bring all these aspects together in cohesion and we at Hyper Connect are working on similar projects set to launch in 2022. Shashwat Das, Founder, Almond Branding: After a chaotic year, 2021 was the year for brands to understand their consumers all over again as a lot had changed in her life amid this pandemic. A lot of it is still evolving while brands are trying to align themselves and Design is bound to reflect such changes in our society and environment. Motion Design We are going to witness more and more motion in brand design as an engaging approach to storytelling. Just having static graphics as part of your visual assets is not good enough anymore. As consumer touchpoints get more digitised, brand design language will be incorporating more of motion graphics, gifs and animations. Going forward most logos will have an animated version. And motion is not limited to websites or apps, we are seeing the advent of AR fused with design. Coming year, we are going to see more Packaging where you scan a QR code and you have elements from the static design springing to action to narrate the brand story in a more engaging manner. Humanisation of Brand Design The years gone by have redefined our priorities. With several months of social distancing, we all have been missing the personal touch. Brands are going to humanise more in their attempt to build stronger relationships and engage better. At Almond Branding, we are happy to notice that our clients are preferring the proposed conversational style of messaging more, be it Packaging or Communication Design. Going forward consumers will be expecting a more personalised experience while connecting with brands. And Brand Design will make them feel that they are buying from a human and not a company. Environment-Friendly Design The pandemic has made consumers more conscious about their environment. While several brands have taken on the mission of being planet-friendly, it’s now time to walk the talk. Consumers are clever and can now easily spot greenwashing. What it means for us in the business of design, is that we have to do much more than just use the colour green to signify that we are planet-friendly. Going forward, brand designers will have to actually choose substrates and packaging formats that are truly sustainable, recyclable and low on carbon impact. 2022 is going to be year of Design for Sustainability. The last 2 years have taught us that the future is uncertain so be prepared to change drastically. The same old ways of thinking and approach are no longer going to work. The way the past 2 years have been, it can only go bigger and better from here. We all have immense hope from the Big year that is upcoming. Embracing the newer trends will be the best way for brands to dominate the market and outshine their competition. Adil Singh, Co-founder, Lights Out Studio: <div type="image" title="Adil" msid="88320263" hostid="261"></div> Two trends that will gain momentum in the coming months: Web3: Everything about block chain and its benefits has been spoken enough. Right from brands dropping NFT’s to allowing customers to buy products in crypto, would start peaking highlight of the more progressive brands. Owning a piece of the brand through the block chain network not only allows you to build a deeper connect with the brand, but also a loyal network of customers who are tech-savy and can contribute back to the brand in multiple ways. Community Building: Harped enough in the past few months, a solid community can help you with product feedback, primary research, uder generated content and also word of mouth evangelism. Communities will go beyond the ‘social media influencers’ to HXC’s (high expectation customers) that the brand targets. These are people who not only can become ideal users / adopters of the product, but also solid leaders / community builders within their personal &amp; professional networks.

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Design: The trends to watch out for in 2021

Karuna Sharma

Making the industry more gender-inclusive: Women leaders show us the way

Samarpita Banerjee

How are Indian organisations and agencies redesigning their office spaces for a post-COVID world

Karuna Sharma

Is 2022 the year when Indian brands will get more serious about sustainability?

Karuna Sharma

Design: The trends to watch out for in 2022

Karuna Sharma

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