{"id":60572,"date":"2026-09-29T19:32:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/2026\/09\/29\/mother-tongue-design-wins-two-blue-elephants-at-the-2026-kyoorius-design-awards-for-ptals-rebrand\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T19:32:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:02:29","slug":"mother-tongue-design-wins-two-blue-elephants-at-the-2026-kyoorius-design-awards-for-ptals-rebrand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/2026\/09\/29\/mother-tongue-design-wins-two-blue-elephants-at-the-2026-kyoorius-design-awards-for-ptals-rebrand\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother Tongue Design Wins Two Blue Elephants at the 2026 Kyoorius Design Awards for P\u2022TAL\u2019s Rebrand"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 29:<\/strong> Mother Tongue Design<\/strong><\/a> (MTD) has won two Blue Elephants at the 2026 Kyoorius Design Awards across the categories \u2018Integrated\u2019<\/strong> under the Design Craft track and \u2018Brand Identity Refresh & Rebrand: MSME\u2019<\/strong> under the Design in Action track, for its work with P\u2022TAL (Punjab Thathera Art Legacy) a brand bringing hand-beaten metalware back into modern homes around the world.<\/p>\n

Mother Tongue Design\u2019s response went beyond a new look, building a complete brand system across identity, positioning, packaging and storytelling. Since the rebrand, P\u2022TAL has served 150,000+ customers across a footprint spanning 40+ countries, positioning Indian metalware as a design-forward lifestyle choice rather than a commodity purchase. Through its packaging, the brand has eliminated 880 kg of plastic. It now supports the livelihoods of 125+ artisan families, increasing their monthly incomes by 3500% in the last three years, strengthening the continuity of a UNESCO-recognised metalcraft tradition and enabling fairer, more sustainable incomes for craft communities.<\/p>\n

The repositioning also delivered clear business milestones. P\u2022TAL was selected as one of only five Indian brands to showcase at Shoppe Object in New York. Additionally, the brand expanded its retail footprint by opening an Exclusive Brand Outlet in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. In September 2025, following the rebrand, P\u2022TAL raised $3 million in a Series-A funding round led by VC Grid, with participation from Rainmatter, the fund backed by Zerodha\u2019\u2019s Nithin Kamath.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the perception of the category shifted from traditional, outdated metal cookware to a modern, health-conscious lifestyle choice. That resonated with a younger, globally aware audience seeking authenticity, wellness and design-led functionality while protecting cultural heritage through commercial viability. View the case study here: https:\/\/www.mothertonguedesign.com\/ptal<\/p>\n

\u00a0Speaking on the win, Shruti Singhi<\/strong><\/a>, Founder & Creative Director, Mother Tongue Design<\/strong>, said: \u201cTrends move fast but culture moves slow, and that\u2019s exactly why it lasts. When a brand is genuinely rooted in something real, it doesn\u2019t need to chase relevance, rather it becomes relevant on its own terms, and stays that way long after the trend has moved on. That\u2019s the difference between creating a category and simply decorating one. Very early on, we knew this would go beyond design and that we needed to tap into a deeper, sub-cultural vein and honour legacy in every detail. The more closely we listened to the craft and the energy of the people behind it, the clearer the design became. These two Blue Elephants belong as much to the artisans as they do to us. P\u2022TAL taught us that when you listen closely to the craft and the people behind it, design finds its own voice and we\u2019re grateful to see that kind of listening recognised.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Aditya Agrawal, CEO & Co-founder, P\u2022TAL (Punjab Thathera Art Legacy), said:<\/strong> \u201cThe idea behind refreshing our brand identity was about creating a brand that could connect with audiences beyond India, while staying rooted in our craft and heritage. We\u2019re especially grateful to see this intent recognised through our design partner, Mother Tongue Design, and we thank Shruti and the MTD team for translating our craft, process and community into something our artisans can be proud to see travel the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

AN IDENTITY FORGED IN THE WORKSHOP<\/strong><\/p>\n

P\u2022TAL is part of a broader shift away from cookware packaging\u2019s long-standing minimalist default, using cultural craft as its starting point. The color system MTD built is drawn directly from the materials and processes of India\u2019s Thathera craftsmanship, so palette becomes a form of translation rather than styling.<\/p>\n

The work began at the core of the brand, with something as intangible as the rhythm of metal being beaten by hand. That led MTD to define five pillars \u2013 material, functionality, craftsmanship, revival and Ayurveda. Rather than treating the project as a campaign, the agency focused on the community and the making process itself became the inspiration, its rhythm, repetition and tools translated directly into the forms and patterns that make up the visual language. The palette comes from the workshop floor, charcoal, the amber glow of fire and the deep tones of tamarind used to clean the metal. Simple vessel silhouettes echo the hammer marks and transformation at the heart of the metalworking process itself, keeping the graphic language tied to the hands and techniques behind each object.<\/em><\/p>\n

AN AGENCY THAT DEFIES CATEGORISATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

P\u2022TAL is not an outlier in MTD\u2019s portfolio, it\u2019s a distillation of how the agency works. Since 2012, MTD has resisted easy categorisation, building a strategy-led practice at the intersection of culture and craft that treats culture as the root system a brand grows from. Across its work with brands like Forest Essentials, Vahdam, Maska and Nimai, that instinct holds; MTD starts not with what a brand should look like, but with the truth sitting at the centre of it, letting the visual language follow downstream so the result reads as lived-in rather than applied.<\/p>\n

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ABOUT MOTHER TONGUE DESIGN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mother Tongue Design (MTD) is a Mumbai-based strategy-led creative design agency founded in 2012. Strategy-first by instinct and multidisciplinary by practice, MTD works across brand identity, packaging, spatial, digital, and emerging media, with a portfolio spanning FMCG, luxury and lifestyle categories. Its work with brands such as Forest Essentials, P\u2022TAL, Vahdam, Maska and Nimai, The Ballard Pier, Tiger Tales, among others is defined by a culturally immersed, strategically rigorous methodology, built on the conviction that a powerful brand communicates in a voice entirely its own. Mother Tongue Design has been recognised by e4m, India\u2019s Best Design Awards (2024), and the Kyooruis Awards 2026 for P\u2022TAL. For press enquiries, partnerships, or to view selected work: <\/a>www.mothertonguedesign.com<\/p>\n

If you object to the content of this press release, please notify us at pr.error.rectification@gmail.com. We will respond and rectify the situation within 24 hours.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 29: Mother Tongue Design (MTD) has won two Blue Elephants at the 2026 Kyoorius Design Awards across the categories \u2018Integrated\u2019 under the Design Craft track and … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[448],"class_list":["post-60572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-business","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialtelegraph.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}