Ashwini Deshpande
Co-Founder Director, Elephant Design, Craft Jury President, India
A 1989 graduate of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Ashwini is co-founder of Elephant Design, India's pioneering independent integrated design consultancy. Elephant has been consistently ranked as No 1 Design Agency in India by The Economic Times Brand Equity for over a decade.
She has lectured across more than 20 countries including ICOGRADA Design Week, Business of Design Week & United Nations Foundation.
Some of the design awards include Global ReBrand 100 (USA), A’Design (Italy), Worldstar(Germany), iF Design (Germany), Lexus Design Award, Design for Asia (HK) etc.
She has been on the jury of Cannes Lions, New York Festival, The One Show, Design for Asia & Spikes Asia and chaired the juries of D&AD Awards, ADStars & London International Awards.
As part of The Design Alliance Asia consortium, Ashwini has collaborated on award winning Colours of Asia project that spanned across 11 countries in Asia.
Ashwini is an active member of Association of Designers of India and The Collective, an initiative by women creative leaders to create safe work-places. She is advisor to Indian Creative Women that promotes diversity.
Impact Magazine has featured Ashwini among 50 Most Influential Women in Media for seven consecutive years. She is on Campaign India’s A-List.
Ashwini mentors start-ups through the TiE - The Indus Entrepreneurs platform. She is part of several advisory boards including Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati and Pune University’s Design Masters Programmes.
