Graduated from faculty of visual communication of National Institute of Design (India) in 1989 with specialization in corporate communication & branded environments. Founder Director & Principal Designer of Elephant Strategy + Design (since 1989). Ashwini specializes in strategic design and planning of consumer product branding as well as
branded environments & retail.
Ashwini has lead experiential branding, packaging & retail projects for some of the leading brands from Britannia, P&G, Unilever, Titan and Nirlep.
Ashwini’s speaking engagements include National Conference of AIGA at Boston, Icograda Design Week in Istanbul and The India Innovation Summit at Bangalore, CII-NID Design Summits at Bangalore & Delhi. She has been a guest lecturer at premier Indian institutes including IIM, NIFT, MICA, American University in Lebanon and the Duke University USA.
She has visited more than20 countries as a guest speaker, jury or workshop leader. Her recent speaking & jury panel engagement was at the World Tea Forum in Beijing in October 2008 where she spoke about innovation for a conventional (tea) business and also judged the package design entries. She will be with the jury at Amsterdam for Output Awards in April 2009.
Rockefeller Foundation invited Ashwini to attend a workshop at their Bellagio campur in June 2008 to discover mutually beneficial working models between NGOs & design firms.
BBC Newsnight UK did a special interview with Ashwini in their programme on Creative Industries from India. CNN-IBN featured her in their story on creative entrepreneurship. CNBC has featured her in “Lifestyle Guru” early March.
HP features her as their brand ambassador for colour printers in India. She is on the Asian Paints Style Leaders ColourNext Panel.
Her publishing includes
1. A chapter on branding in "Building Brands in the Indian Markets", edited by Dr. Tapan Panda & published by Excel Books India
2. A case study and expert views in "A Designer's Research Manual" edited by Prof Jennifer Visocky O' Grady published by Rockport Publishers, USA.