I knew I could do this, I was always confident about it. For the last 2-3 years I have been giving feelers to clients that I want to direct their/your product window. I believe that, at least in the food industry, clients can shoot independent food films which they can run as an ad-film on its own or use to integrate food footage from this film in their main, story-based film. And for this you need a specialist director: someone who knows how the food will behave. I believe that most directors can direct people very well, but when it comes to food they need professional help and normally they would rely on the food stylist (of course I am not including veterans like Pralhad Kakkad, Anirudh, Prakash Verma and a few others…).

With more than 15 years of experience with the best in the industry & 500 films as a stylist, I do think that I have enough material to convince anybody that I can direct food-product windows on my own. I can make food emote for the camera.

As a policy, again, I did not consciously market this service and decided to wait till it comes to me. And it did! Last month I got a call from one of my most favourite clients (I will not name the job till it is released) with this offer to direct and shoot a 10 second food film. And, to my surprise, I found that they were confident that I will be able to pull it off. I want to thank everyone who gave me this opportunity; I will of course name them personally once I disclose the job when it is released.

Wow, what a feeling!! What an experience!!

I have been for pre-production meetings to discuss food shots with clients a thousand times but this time it was different. This time, I had conceptualized the entire film myself. It was me who was taking people through the shots, convincing them & making them see the shots. I had prepared a shot breakdown in a line drawing format. We went back and forth on each shot, convincing & getting convinced with their logics & alternations. Here, I want to be honest; the product that we were working on was not very challenging (let me give you a clue; it is not a pizza) But since there were so many restrictions from the client and the agency, though it was easy to conceive shots, it was frustrating that I could not treat them the way I could have without these restrictions.

The shoot day began in utter chaos. Again another of the firsts was in line was that I was shooting this film in my new studio. Yes, we recently bought a second studio to shoot films. Oh, it was an organized mess. There were too many people and there was too much responsibility on my shoulders to execute the shots and finish them in one shift. Fortunately, some of the best people from the industry were involved; Joel Fonseca & his wife Gemma from Sparkle Productions were handling the production and Sunil Patel himself was the Director of Photography (DOP). I was in safe hands. We began shooting at 9:30 am.

Sunil was fast and efficient and so was Joel, Gemma and their team. We had scheduled to shoot 9 shots and we were through with the first 6 before lunch break. I knew what I wanted and did not waste any time in re-takes. After all, my heroes (the food) did not have any emoting issues; I had made and styled them the way it was required and they delivered to my expectations J. We packed-up on time; in fact, we did so an hour early despite of shooting more shots than scheduled. I was home early to unwind with Altamash.

I have just come back from the tele-cine and edits. And guess what? The film looks fantastic! Initially, this exercise was to add the food footage in the main film, which was shot separately, but after going through the edits, clients may run my footage as an independent 10 second film.

Yippeeeeeeeeeeee!!

For more than a decade now, working as a food stylist & photographer, I have endeavored to create food shots which are picture-perfect. Clients, art directors, cinematographers and food film directors have sought extreme perfection in the food shots from me.

But last week, when I saw my son relishing a pizza, I noticed that, to him, it did not matter how was the pizza served or presented. And I realized that every food does not need an immaculate, clinical treatment, with no spare crumbs or anything of the sort lying around casually. I immediately created a list of the variety of food that can be shot in a very un-conventional fashion for a food stylist. The attached image of Tandoori chicken below is the first of this list. I have exclusively named this series as the Au Naturel series… which means “In the plainest or simplest manner”.

Well this was challenge indeed. Admittedly it was not difficult to style, to light or to shoot the image at all. The problem came when I had to convince myself that I can shoot a single leg piece instead of two, that the lime slices in the back need not be fresh yellow, that I can indeed leave crumbs of spices on the main plate. I finally created the look & feel of the pizza, but, instead, using the appropriate props for a tandoori chicken. The mood light, I believe gave the image its premium touch.

I will soon shoot the rest of images in the list and share on my space

Butter Chicken lasagne

Sounds different huh!! That’s one of the innovative foods I have shot for Dish Hospitality…. owners of culinary brands like Aurus, Sanchos, Nasta-Chai and more recently started Cinnabon!

For some time I have been pondering on the idea of talking to you about the people who I believe have made a mark on today’s booming food industry. People who have created food brands. I know them, as I have worked with them over all the 15 years of my career as a Food Stylist and Photographer. These include Ad film directors, Cinematographers, Photographers, Creative directors, Design cells & Food entrepreneurs. Here is the first of the series of interviews I have conducted with them. I am sure you will find them to be inspiring .

Ashwini Deshpande – Co-founder Elephant Strategy + Design, India’s largest independent design consultancy.

I met Ashwini Deshpande about 6 years back like I meet so many other clients / artists on a shoot. Since then we have worked together on a number of projects for Britannia (almost the entire range) & Venkys.

As a trained Graphic Designer from NID, Ashwini embarked upon the unexplored sector of design entrepreneurship in 1989. As India’s largest independent design consultancy, Elephant Design has played a pivotal role in establishing the business of design for over 21 years.

Elephant work has been recognized with several international awards including ReBrand International, Asiastar Packaging Excellence, International Spark, Global Green Gadgets etc.

Ashwini divides her time between teaching, pro bono work and professional consultancy to help products & services become relevant in the emerging markets; later being her priority at the moment.

Ashwini has lectured around the world in over 20 countries, Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Summit, Copenhagen Co-creation Summit & ICOGRADA Vancouver Design Week being some of the significant ones.

Saba: Tell us a bit about yourself. Where did you start? Your schooling? Your experiences?

Ashwini: I grew up in Aurangabad, a small town with limited exposure to global professions & trends. Always into creative expressions like art, model making, collages, I had built up an appetite for doing something creative in my growing up years, though I was not aware of the profession of design. My parents were extremely supportive of my search for that unconventional creative pursuit. I was fortunate that I got to know of National Institute of Design just in time for seeking admission. It was a happy combination of luck and sincere will that got me a seat in batch of just 24 at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 1983 after few nationwide rounds of entrance exams, group activities & personal interview. Design education is very different from conventional academics. There were no text books or examinations. Your learning entirely depends upon your ability to explore, discover & grasp. Design is “learning by doing”. It took me a while to unlearn the system I had grown up into and start enjoying the self-learning pattern.

Saba: In year 1989 Elephant Design was a 2 member team. Today there is a large team working? And how big is the creative department?

Ashwini: Well… we were actually 6 friends that started Elephant in 1989. We are a strong independent team of 60+ today with multi-disciplinary design expertise & experience. Anywhere in the world, that is considered a big design office. However, it really does not matter how many people we gather. To us what matters the most is quality of our solutions. Creativity in design is always purposeful. A professional designer, by training knows his/ her responsibility towards society, economy and the environment. Today the team is richer with inclusion of design strategists, managers & researchers.

Saba: Where do you get your design inspiration from?

Ashwini:I get my inspiration from people that we design for. In India, the foremost concern for design is still the fact that design cannot add to the cost of a product or service. Design must add delight, comfort, excitement, give distinct experiences and satisfy different concerns for each of the stake holders. All this is possible only of you understand the user, consumer, buyer of whatever it is that we design. Observing real people & their environments is the true inspiration.

Saba: What goes into the packaging decisions on a food product?

Ashwini: Recently, I was interacting with brand managers of one India’s most loved foods company. When I asked them what their dream was, here is what an interesting answer was; “A shop has run out of my brand & someone who came looking for it went empty handed!”. Now… that is what a cult brand is. A brand that cannot be replaced by any other. I believe packaging a one of the biggest moments of truth in a brand experience. And for a food brand, the largest driver is how you show the food. At Elephant, we call it the “drool shot”. No matter what the pack contains, when it sits on shelf, it must entice the shopper and have him/ her drool over the contents. Apart from colour, shape & branding, food styling is the prime decision that talks to the intended audience.

Saba: You did a full-service design job for Venky’s recently you worked on their branding and then developed that into a full design for their packaging and their stores. How did the project come about?

Ashwini: Venky’s was an interesting project as it gave us the opportunity to renew branding and the entire eco-system of brand including identity, brand essence, positioning, portfolio architecture of all business verticals, packaging and stores.

Saba: What was the brief and how did you approach it?

Ashwini: To keep its brand relevant and aspirational, Venky’s brand needed to rejuvenate and transform to appeal and gain patronage of the new consumers and their changed aspirations. The company partnered with Elephant to achieve this objective through a Corporate Identity change. The challenge was to create a differentiated Identity and define a clear and effective Brand Architecture, that would be relevant to current consumers and differentiate Venky’s from competitors, while also integrating and highlighting the group’s values and legacy of being a pioneer of the poultry industry in India. To know more about this case study, visit http://elephantdesign.com.

Saba: What’s your design philosophy?

Ashwini:To make a positive difference by design!

Saba: Do you have a dream project?

Ashwini: Sure. I want Elephant team to design the Olympics Games identity & livery. With our experience in creating a benchmark at the Commonwealth Youth Games 2008, a global event with participation by 71 countries, this really would be the logical progression for us. For the Commonwealth Youth Games, our team created the identity, a green baton that went around the country spreading environmental awareness and over 2000 multi-sensorial applications related to the Games event.
Saba: What kinds of trends have you seen in food packaging over the time of your business?

Ashwini: Days of tins, wax paper or butter paper are gone. I see much more use of plastics. Printing techniques are much more evolved over the years & you can now get some amazing effects that make food look even better than it actually is! Messaging has changed largely and now there is emphasis on information like “zero transfat” “no added sugar” etc. In terms of the contents or ingredients of the food product, there is a healthy regulatory watch that empowers consumers. Veg/ non-veg logo were are mandatory now & a consumer can clearly understand what the pack contains before buying or consuming. In terms of design, we have started using much more colour to be able to shout out of shelf, but I believe we will go a full circle & start creating some “quieter” packaging to stand out in the riot.

Saba: What has been the most rewarding project that you’ve worked on?

Ashwini: After 21 years of design practice, it is impossible to look back & pick one. And I am still very excited by whatever is at hand (otherwise we wouldn’t take it up!) So I always hope it is the one I am working on right now that will be our most rewarding project.

On the onset, let me confess that I do indeed enjoy styling & shooting Indian food.

But you would ask why?

Well, as crazy at is sounds, it’s for all the reasons that most people find it difficult to style & shoot, such as:

- Almost all Indian gravies look alike

- Very cumbersome to make

- No variations possible in styling and camera angle

- Can only garnish with Coriander leaves

- All Indian gravies have to be served in bowls

- Need a lot of accompaniments to compliment the dish

- Can be only served in ethnic metallic plates & bowls & hence boring to light & shoot

- Most important is the close minded client, who thinks that Indian food can look good in only one kind of set-up

Let me enumerate each of the points in details & how I try to enjoy working in such restriction.

All Indian curries/gravies look alike

Well for starters — they don’t!! The Daals, the Kadhis, the Rasams; every single gravy belongs to a different genre; each of these gravies are different in terms of look, color, consistency & texture. Yes, I agree that there are a number of Indian curries that have a similar style of cooking. But that is the challenge! With your styling and photography you need to show that difference. And that is exactly what I relish while styling.

Palak Paneer

Pakoda Kadhi

Egg Curry

Chicken Kolhapuri

Allow me to give you an example: I have now been styling for the last 15 years and I must have styled the famous dish, Dal Tadka, more than a 100 times or more, for different clients and purposes. But I have never managed to bore myself with it. Each of my food shots has something dissimilar, something unique that makes it stand out. It gives me great satisfaction to say that I have hopefully managed to incorporate that integral point into my own work.

Then there is also the problem that different curries may look alike, even though they are poles apart in terms of taste. I know that there will be a set of curries, or any food for that matter, in a job that may look similar, but it is the challenge of creating that difference that piques me and prepares me for another dull shoot.

So how do I achieve this?

I am a graduate in Hotel Management, from the Dadar Catering College-Mumbai. And I have studied Indian Regional Cuisine; the way food is cooked and served across the country. As a food stylist one needs to know the correct final look of all Indian food such as traditional methods of cooking, serving, etc. Indian food, be it curries or dals or rice or breads, all vary from region to region across India.

I actually find it fun to significantly alter the food presentation of each cuisine by using the so-called disadvantages such as lighting, layouts, garnishing, prop setup, etc. to my advantage! In my first book on the “Garnish” series, I have selected and shot 30 different Indian curies, illustrating each dish as diversely as possible. Few of the curries are showed in traditional props but few of them have been shot in a very contemporary setup. In fact I like to bend or break some basic rules while shooting an Indian curries. I like to combine my cuisine with that of a staple that it is regularly eaten with, instead of just shooting the dish alone. This helps me to improve the beauty of the shot and provides me with a completely new design.

Butter Chicken with Rice

Every Indian curry has a very unique texture, color & consistency. One cannot get away by saying that continental sauces are better to shoot as they easily look good due to their gloss & smoothness. I like working with coarse gravies. Besides styling food I even shoot food. And coarse gravies give a completely different lighting opportunity. Unlike continental smooth sauces coarse gravies catch highlights. They react very dynamically to directly light source and hence show a very appealing character. It’s actually fun to see how the coarse textures react to various sources of light.

As a stylist all you need to do is show the gravy texture correctly, ensure that all qualities of the gravy are enhanced and just enough for them to be recognizable.

Butter Chicken

Indian food be it gravies or Indian breads, you have an opportunity to shoot them in traditional, rustic setup with vivid backgrounds or you can make them really hi-key, I love shooting in both styles. Over the years, I have compiled an absolutely colossal collection of props bought from Good Earth’s to Ikea’s. And I ensure that my collection is always updated.

Dal Makhani (Traditional Setup)

Dal Makhani (Contemporary Setup)

I believe as a food stylist and a food photographer, one should know their food well, do a if required, good research & experiment with your creativity. Indian food shots rock!