An awards show is only as good as what it stands for. When Kyoorius Creative Awards launched in 2014, the brief wasn’t just to design a trophy and a ceremony, it was to build a credible standard for Indian creativity at a time when the industry still looked to D&AD and Cannes for validation.
That meant making decisions a typical event design agency wouldn’t: what the judging criteria should be, what winning should feel like, and — 12 years later — who deserved a seat at the table that had never had one.
Origins
As Kyoorius grew into a sizeable community platform between 2006 and 2013, the Creative Awards were the natural next step. India’s creative community had looked westward for recognition long enough.
We shaped the awards from its beginning until 2018.
Trophy Design
An elephant — a symbol of Indian royalty, and an undeniable presence.
It started as a lump of playdoh, shaped into a baby elephant, then cast in solid metal and powder-coated in blue, black, and red. At 13 kilos originally, when you won one, you definitely felt the weight of it.
Awards Ceremony Design
We didn’t want a ceremony. We wanted a party that happened to hand out trophies.
The launch, inspired by Bono concerts, broke the format entirely. Out with the rows of chairs and the polite applause. Instead we designed a circular lounge at NSCI Worli Dome, cocktail tables, a semicircular stage with two ramps, LED screens, a live performer.
By 2015 we went further. Inspired by Daft Punk’s Lose Yourself to Dance, winners danced down a T-shaped ramp to collect their trophies. Shuffle, sway, break dance, whatever felt right — celebrate Creativity, the way it ought to be.
The highlight: Ivan Chermayeff danced too, just to be a sport.
The Awards Annuals
A physical record of every nominated and winning work, designed with Some Early Birds. 2014 to 2018.
Kyoorius Annuals over the years
2026: The Return
After an eight-year gap, we came back to build something new: the Kyoorius Marketing Awards.
Marketing had never had its own seat at Kyoorius’s table. KMA was built to recognise the thinking behind the brief, the consumer insight, and the decisions that make creativity work.
We built the platform vision, category structure, campaign, and a new concrete trophy.
The ceremony was reimagined too: a centre stage, hanging LEDs, a live band instead of a DJ and reactive code on screens. Together, the 2026 Kyoorius Creative and Marketing Awards ceremony signalled a change of winds.
The Design Awards got the same scrutiny. Design is no longer just about craft. It’s also effectiveness, business impact and societal change. From that insight, we rebuilt the category structure, entry criteria, and judging framework into three tracks: Design Craft, Design In Action, and Design Impact.
Design Impact needed the most rethinking. Originally, we’d asked for hard, measurable outcomes, but design-driven change rarely shows up that cleanly. We replaced it with a framework that lets entrants argue impact, instead of just counting.
15 years on, Kyoorius Awards is still the show India’s creative industry wants to win.
Role: Strategic Consultancy, Creative Direction, Trophy Design, Event Experience Design, Publication Design
2006–2018, 2026