Start-up founder credits UPES for giving her ‘wings to fly’

UPES School of Design alumna Shefali Goyal talks about her success story, from being a student with dreams in her eyes to a successful product design start-up owner

Creative Consilio – a design, branding and strategy venture – was launched in 2018 by an alumna of UPES, Shefali Goyal. Shefali pursued M.Des. in Industrial Design from 2015-17. She launched her start-up after two short internships of 7 months each where she gained the necessary skills in industrial as well as digital product designing.

“Soon after my Masters, I worked with a product design start-up as an industrial design intern for 7 months,” Shefali says. “That was a golden period of my career where I got the opportunity to shape my skills as an industrial product designer. I worked on multi-disciplinary projects there, majorly outdoor pollution controllers. From structuring the project research to manufacturing it in the factory, this journey made me into a professional industrial designer,” she adds.

Next in the journey was a tech-company. This was again an internship for 7 months where her digital product design skills were developed. She worked with the hardware team to develop a ‘Smart Water Bottle Brand’ that could monitor the water intake among corporate professionals. It was a project from scratch to manufacture. A lot of research, ideation, prototype and user-testing was done to make the product a success. “This being a tech-company, I got the opportunity to be introduced to and work on digital products too,” the young entrepreneur explains.

Shefali credits her time working as an intern for shaping her skill sets and giving her a vision for her future – a product design start-up that would be inspired by abstract ideas to bring her clients’ requirements to life, while also adhering closely to their functional and aspirational demands.

Creative Consilio was started with a primary focus on product and interior design. Its team of agile engineers, designers, artists and strategists excel at ‘concept to creation’ and ‘idea to implementation’, producing truly unique and engaging designs that enliven up any atmosphere.

The agency has been working with small to mid-size companies for the past three years, helping them launch new or revamped products in the market within strict budget guidelines.

“For 3 years now, I have been working for small to mid-size companies which are keen to launch a new or improved product, but are struggling with execution and budgets. From my years of experience, I help them bring their idea to the desired level of optimization and then launch it in the market profitably,” Shefali says.

Currently, Creative Consilio handles physical product design projects apart from a few digital products. The company handles projects for digital marketing, packaging design, brand strategy and development. It credits its success to its ability to have a deep understanding of the needs of their clientele. Consilio’s branding solutions are strategically designed to exemplify the core competencies of their clients. It enables a brand to say exactly what it should through its design solutions that are an apt amalgam of form, type, colour and materials. The company is accomplished at workspace designing, café theme solutions and home interior planning.

Shefali attributes her entrepreneurial success to strong mentorship and support from UPES.

“It has definitely been a journey in which the UPES was the catalyst,” she says. “The School of Design gave me the wings with which I fly today. I am very grateful to Mr. Rakesh Sah, who encouraged me and moulded the designer in me. He recognised the entrepreneur in me and has been supportive whenever needed,” Shefali signs off.