Divya Agarwal
New Delhi [India], August 18: Ten years ago, Praneeta Kumar Shringi and Hitesh Nigam founded DesignAnswers with a shared conviction: that design creates its greatest value when it is grounded in strategy.
Today, that belief remains at the heart of the independent Gurugram-based firm. DesignAnswers works with organisations at moments of creation, change and growth—helping them define what they stand for, find a distinctive place in the market and translate that thinking into brands and experiences that people recognise, understand and remember.
Its practice sits deliberately at the intersection of strategy and design. Brand strategy, positioning and architecture often begin the conversation; identity, packaging, digital, campaigns, editorial and environmental design bring that thinking to life. The result is a body of work that spans industries, audiences and very different levels of scale and premiumness—from accessible consumer brands to sophisticated corporate and institutional identities.
That breadth has become one of DesignAnswers’ strengths.
The firm has worked across FMCG, aviation, technology, healthcare, financial services, hospitality and lifestyle, partnering with organisations including American Express, Diageo, ITC, Dr. Reddy’s, Bayer, Pernod Ricard, Digi Yatra Foundation and BLR Airport. Over the years, its work has been recognised repeatedly at India’s Best Design Awards, alongside recognition from The Economic Times Awards for Design & Creativity.
But the more compelling story is the diversity of problems behind that work.
For Wingreens Farms, DesignAnswers helped build a distinctive consumer-facing brand and packaging language in an intensely competitive category. For Digi Yatra, it translated a complex technology proposition into an identity designed around simplicity, trust and seamless travel. And its relationship with BLR Airport has grown across multiple engagements and touchpoints—spanning brand thinking, communication, campaigns, publications and new propositions within the airport ecosystem.
This ability to move between categories—and between mass, premium and institutional brands—is intentional. DesignAnswers does not subscribe to a house style. The ambition is to find the strategic idea that is right for the business and then build a design language powerful enough to own it.
Central to this approach are its founders.
Praneeta and Hitesh remain deeply involved in the work, often working directly with leadership teams from the earliest conversations through to execution. Their complementary perspectives—Praneeta at the intersection of business, brand and strategy; Hitesh across creative thinking and design—have shaped both the firm and the relationships it builds.
That hands-on model has resulted in partnerships that frequently extend beyond individual projects. Clients return as businesses evolve, brands grow and new challenges emerge. For DesignAnswers, longevity is built not by becoming an external supplier, but by becoming a trusted creative and strategic partner.
A decade in, DesignAnswers remains deliberately independent, curious and close to the work. Its ambition for the next ten years is not simply to design more brands, but to play a larger role in building them—bringing strategy and creativity together to create businesses that are distinctive, relevant and built to endure.
