"Stop Treating Designers as Tools": Ayush Singh on Ownership, Burnout and Speaking Up in Indian Brands - Yanko Design

""I joined brands that proudly call themselves design driven, expecting to lead innovation. Instead, I found myself in meetings where the brief was literally make it look like this western brand, but make it cheaper. That's not design leadership, that's glorified localization. The real question isn't whether Indian brands invest in design. It's whether they invest in their own design vision or just outsource the thinking and ask internal teams to clean up the execution.""

""Yanko Design's weekly podcast, Design Mindset, continues to bring raw, unfiltered conversations about what it really means to work in design today. Episode 18, Powered by KeyShot, tackles a topic many Indian designers experience but rarely discuss openly: the uncomfortable gap between what brands promise about design investment and what actually happens behind closed doors. Each week, the podcast peels back the layers of design practice, exploring not just the creative work but the professional realities that shape it.""

""Currently Associate Director of Industrial Design at Noise, where he leads audio and accessories categories, Ayush previously spent time at boAt Lifestyle, leading five sub-brands and contributing to the design of everything from wireless headphones to smartwatches to grooming products. His experience spans the full product lifecycle, from concept to launch, but more importantly, he's navigated the complex dynamics of being an in-house designer in India's explosive consumer tech ecosystem.""

Ayush Singh Patel describes how in-house designers in India's consumer-tech ecosystem frequently receive briefs to emulate Western products at lower cost, resulting in glorified localization rather than original design leadership. Designers often handle full product lifecycles but work within organizational priorities of speed and cost that constrain experimentation and differentiation. Brand investment tends to fund execution over strategic design vision, reducing designers' creative ownership. Building lasting design credibility requires brands to invest in their own design vision, grant internal teams decision-making authority, and allow time and resources for true innovation.

Read at Yanko Design - Modern Industrial Design News