Ashish Deshpande is a graduate in Industrial Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmadabad, India.
He started his design entrepreneurship in 1989, by co-founding Elephant, one of India’s pioneering design practices.
Ashish leads the Product & Retail Innovation group at Elephant, but believes that design must not be narrowed into disciplines, and that understanding users is a key component of any innovation activity. Over the years he has led several award winning design projects ranging from consumer appliances related to air, water & energy, Commonwealth Youth Games baton, medical diagnostic equipment, exhibitions and retail environments. He and his team at Elephant Design have been recipients of several awards. They believe that design & designer both need to be responsible and that the true success of a project lies in business success.
Ashish has been a speaker at various conventions and seminars & regularly conducts workshops on Product Innovation Process. He has been a jury on Output Awards, Amsterdam. He is a certified Good Design Mark jury (Japan) and is a panelist on the India Design Mark jury and Design for Change initiative jury. His awards include Plastindia Foundation’s Most Innovative Product Design, Jindal Steel’s Innovation Award, Global Greener Gadgets Finalist & Spark (USA) Finalist.
Ashish is Vice President of Association of Designers of India (ADI) since 2010 and a founding team member of Pune Design Festival since 2007. He is also on the National Committee on Design and MSME Committee of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Website: www.elephantdesign.com
