Nowadays business and overall marketing of an organization massively depends on how the brand looks visually. Effective brand communication helps you stay ahead of the curve as well as stand out in the growing and saturated market. Brands, that are household names have always trusted as well as invested in creative marketing. While the Indian branding and marketing industry has been experiencing a huge boost in terms of customer demand, there has been a huge gap with brands mostly following conventional and less thoughtout templates for branding and putting themselves out there. Seeing a gap in the market, Disha Kapoor co-founded Design Interior Branding Studio, pronounced as DIBS* in 2021. In a short period, the firm has become one of the leading creative branding studios due to its insistence on high-quality, out of the box deliverables as well as innovative brand ideas that makes brands stand out of the crowd.

In an exclusive interview with Women Entrepreneur, Disha shares her early experience, the underline motivation behind starting DIBS*, and much more:

Shed some light on your early educational journey and prior industry experience. Tell us about the underlying idea behind establishing dibs* and some of its most unique features.

After my schooling in Ludhiana, I moved to the UK to do my Bachelor’s degree in Architecture at the University of Bath. During my degree, I worked for firms across London and Paris as a design intern, where in I worked on workspace design projects in London and on the Gallery Redesign project for Louvre, Abu Dhabi, working closely with the starchitect Jean Nouvel. These experiences really honed my Interior Design skills. After graduating in 2020, I decided to move back to India during the pandemic. I joined a Creative Agency in New Delhi as a Junior Designer, and within three months of joining, I got promoted to the position of a Senior Designer and worked there for a year before starting DIBS* in August 2021.

Belonging to a family of entrepreneurs, instead of joining my family business, I was always determined to have an entrepreneurial journey of my own. I found the social media agencies in India doing uninventive and typical template designs without any creative thought and started DIBS* based on that market gap while I was just 22.

We are one of those few agencies in India that combine brand design with interior design. The brand identity needs to translate onto the interiors and the offline experience as well, and that is something we strongly believe in. So, branded interiors acts as an additional experiential touchpoint for the brands, which also helps us stay ahead of the curve.

What are the various roles and responsibilities you shoulder as the co-founder of dibs*? What are your primary focus areas as one of the primary leaders of the firm?

As the co-founder as well as the creative heart of the organization, my responsibilities involve creative ideation, strategizing for brands, taking the creative brief and translating the same into a design, and so on. I also mentor any new designers that join us, and help in honing their thought and design skills as well. I am very particular about DIBS* creating work that is up to the highest standards, which helps our brands reach their audience in the best possible way. I also have a very strong opinion about the kind of brands we work with.

“If you feel you have an idea in your head and you really believe in it, then don't think twice and just go for it”

What are some of the major challenges that you face in your current role and how do you overcome them?

People in India have a very different outlook towards agencies and expect agencies to do whatever they say just because they have hired them. Since our work is mostly thought led, which is intangible, the perceived value of our work is hard for the clients to calculate. However, as an organization, we always strongly follow our ethics and never take up something that we don’t agree with and that includes clients as well. Another major challenge that we face is in form of getting new business. It's very difficult change consumer behavior and make brands switch from the agencies they’ve been comfortable with for years.

What are some of the major milestones that you have achieved and what has been the driving force behind your success? Any advice for the young women and girls who also aspire to become business leaders and entrepreneurs in the future?

Starting the company has been one of the biggest milestones of my professional life. Being young at that time, as well as starting it without any financial support from my parents was a huge risk and felt scary. We also moved to an office space recently, which is something really huge for us. Whether making a client happy or teaching something successfully to an employee or even getting a new brand on board, these small milestones contribute to the bigger success. I believe in having small milestones every day, which is something that motivates me to keep going. I also want to be an inspiration for young women start their entrepreneurial journey, no matter how old they are and do something they enjoy as well as believe in.

The advice I would like to give to young women and budding entrepreneurs is not to be afraid of taking risks. If you feel you have an idea in your head and you really believe in it, then don't think twice and just go for it. It may take you some time to achieve where you envision yourself, and that's okay as everybody has a different journey. Keep motivating yourself. There will be days when you will feel low but that's what makes the journey worth it.

Disha Kapoor, Co-Founder, DIBS*

Disha Kapoor is the co-founder and creative heart of the Gurgaon-based design studio. A graduate in Architecture from the University of Bath, she also has the experience of working for firms across London and Paris during her degree days. Being an extremely particular leader, Disha is extremely focused the highstandards that DIBS* is known for.