Divya Agarwal
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 29: Mother Tongue Design (MTD) has won two Blue Elephants at the 2026 Kyoorius Design Awards across the categories ‘Integrated’ under the Design Craft track and ‘Brand Identity Refresh & Rebrand: MSME’ under the Design in Action track, for its work with P•TAL (Punjab Thathera Art Legacy) a brand bringing hand-beaten metalware back into modern homes around the world.
Mother Tongue Design’s response went beyond a new look, building a complete brand system across identity, positioning, packaging and storytelling. Since the rebrand, P•TAL has served 150,000+ customers across a footprint spanning 40+ countries, positioning Indian metalware as a design-forward lifestyle choice rather than a commodity purchase. Through its packaging, the brand has eliminated 880 kg of plastic. It now supports the livelihoods of 125+ artisan families, increasing their monthly incomes by 3500% in the last three years, strengthening the continuity of a UNESCO-recognised metalcraft tradition and enabling fairer, more sustainable incomes for craft communities.
The repositioning also delivered clear business milestones. P•TAL was selected as one of only five Indian brands to showcase at Shoppe Object in New York. Additionally, the brand expanded its retail footprint by opening an Exclusive Brand Outlet in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. In September 2025, following the rebrand, P•TAL raised $3 million in a Series-A funding round led by VC Grid, with participation from Rainmatter, the fund backed by Zerodha’’s Nithin Kamath.
Moreover, the perception of the category shifted from traditional, outdated metal cookware to a modern, health-conscious lifestyle choice. That resonated with a younger, globally aware audience seeking authenticity, wellness and design-led functionality while protecting cultural heritage through commercial viability. View the case study here: https://www.mothertonguedesign.com/ptal
Speaking on the win, Shruti Singhi, Founder & Creative Director, Mother Tongue Design, said: “Trends move fast but culture moves slow, and that’s exactly why it lasts. When a brand is genuinely rooted in something real, it doesn’t need to chase relevance, rather it becomes relevant on its own terms, and stays that way long after the trend has moved on. That’s the difference between creating a category and simply decorating one. Very early on, we knew this would go beyond design and that we needed to tap into a deeper, sub-cultural vein and honour legacy in every detail. The more closely we listened to the craft and the energy of the people behind it, the clearer the design became. These two Blue Elephants belong as much to the artisans as they do to us. P•TAL taught us that when you listen closely to the craft and the people behind it, design finds its own voice and we’re grateful to see that kind of listening recognised.”
Aditya Agrawal, CEO & Co-founder, P•TAL (Punjab Thathera Art Legacy), said: “The idea behind refreshing our brand identity was about creating a brand that could connect with audiences beyond India, while staying rooted in our craft and heritage. We’re especially grateful to see this intent recognised through our design partner, Mother Tongue Design, and we thank Shruti and the MTD team for translating our craft, process and community into something our artisans can be proud to see travel the world.”
AN IDENTITY FORGED IN THE WORKSHOP
P•TAL is part of a broader shift away from cookware packaging’s long-standing minimalist default, using cultural craft as its starting point. The color system MTD built is drawn directly from the materials and processes of India’s Thathera craftsmanship, so palette becomes a form of translation rather than styling.
The work began at the core of the brand, with something as intangible as the rhythm of metal being beaten by hand. That led MTD to define five pillars – material, functionality, craftsmanship, revival and Ayurveda. Rather than treating the project as a campaign, the agency focused on the community and the making process itself became the inspiration, its rhythm, repetition and tools translated directly into the forms and patterns that make up the visual language. The palette comes from the workshop floor, charcoal, the amber glow of fire and the deep tones of tamarind used to clean the metal. Simple vessel silhouettes echo the hammer marks and transformation at the heart of the metalworking process itself, keeping the graphic language tied to the hands and techniques behind each object.
AN AGENCY THAT DEFIES CATEGORISATION
P•TAL is not an outlier in MTD’s portfolio, it’s a distillation of how the agency works. Since 2012, MTD has resisted easy categorisation, building a strategy-led practice at the intersection of culture and craft that treats culture as the root system a brand grows from. Across its work with brands like Forest Essentials, Vahdam, Maska and Nimai, that instinct holds; MTD starts not with what a brand should look like, but with the truth sitting at the centre of it, letting the visual language follow downstream so the result reads as lived-in rather than applied.
ABOUT MOTHER TONGUE DESIGN
Mother Tongue Design (MTD) is a Mumbai-based strategy-led creative design agency founded in 2012. Strategy-first by instinct and multidisciplinary by practice, MTD works across brand identity, packaging, spatial, digital, and emerging media, with a portfolio spanning FMCG, luxury and lifestyle categories. Its work with brands such as Forest Essentials, P•TAL, Vahdam, Maska and Nimai, The Ballard Pier, Tiger Tales, among others is defined by a culturally immersed, strategically rigorous methodology, built on the conviction that a powerful brand communicates in a voice entirely its own. Mother Tongue Design has been recognised by e4m, India’s Best Design Awards (2024), and the Kyooruis Awards 2026 for P•TAL. For press enquiries, partnerships, or to view selected work: www.mothertonguedesign.com
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