The Playbook for Remarkable Indian Consumer Brands

Groundbreakin’ this week features Abhishek Durani who runs Studio Sorted, studied architecture at CEPT, and genuinely believes design should be fun. Not ‘strategic fun.’ Just fun.

He prefers to be called Durani. There are too many Abhisheks. He’s not wrong.
He also has ADHD. He calls it a superpower. After 45 minutes with him, I’m not going to argue.

Durani co-founded Studio Sorted: a branding agency in Bangalore that treats play like it’s a line item on the P&L. Their website says “We take our play seriously.” Not many agencies say that and mean it.

He studied architecture at CEPT, where he met his co-founder and now wife, Netra. What started as freelancing for some extra money turned into a love for Photoshop, and eventually, the discovery that design could be his escape from boredom. He never looked back.

Seven years later, Studio Sorted has built brands for Theka Coffee, Food Pharmer’s Only What’s Needed, Smash Guys, and a growing list of clients who share one thing in common: they didn’t want to be boring.

• Why ADHD became his unfair advantage and how most people kill the very thing that makes them interesting.

• The architecture training that makes him look at branding differently.

• How Studio Sorted built a brand led by the community for Food Pharmer.

• That “Last Supper” mural he made using AI and why he’s not embarrassed to say it.

• Why does he check your Instagram before hiring you (and whether that’s fair).

• The type foundry, Panic Press, and the other experiments nobody asked him to start.

• Why “scale for the sake of scale” doesn’t excite him and what he wants instead.

ADHD as a Superpower
The first thing you notice about Durani is the energy. It’s not performative. It’s the kind of energy that runs a studio, plays cricket (fast bowler and he started as a spinner), makes music, and still finds design exciting after seven years.

The second thing you notice is he’s not pretending.

He told me branding and design started as a hobby. A side thing. An escape from the structured life of architecture college. And that origin story hooked me in.

“When you start something as an escape, it can never be boring.”

Most designers I know who burn out started with purpose. They wanted to change the world or build something meaningful. Durani started because he needed money for things he “probably can’t mention here” and wanted an excuse to play with Photoshop.

The ADHD diagnosis came later. Three years ago. Properly diagnosed. And instead of treating it like a limitation, he reframed it.

“If you know ADHD, there’s that anti-boring aspect to it. There’s no space for boredom or dullness.” It’s not just a personal quirk. It dictates the work the studio takes on, the clients they attract, and the culture they build. When you’re pathologically anti-boring, you don’t accidentally create boring brands.

The Architecture of Everything
Durani studied at CEPT University in Ahmedabad. One of India’s best architecture schools. And he credits that training for almost everything Studio Sorted does today.

“Architecture trains you to look at things from a 360-degree perspective. If something goes wrong with the foundation, the entire building could fall. That fear trains you to look at everything at once.”

Most branding agencies come from graphic design. Studio Sorted comes from buildings. That changes how they see problems.

Durani says his biggest contribution to every project is vision and that comes from being trained to think three steps ahead, about structure, foundations and how everything connects. This is why Studio Sorted doesn’t feel like a typical design agency. The thinking is different because of the cross-pollination of these two subjects in his head.

The Brief That Said “Make it Boring”
When Food Pharmer came to Studio Sorted, his brief was unusual. He wanted the most boring packaging in the world. Clean. Transparent. No gimmicks.
Durani’s response was on the tip of the tongue: “Boss, I can do everything you’ve asked for except the boring part. Nobody likes boring.”

What followed was a masterclass in participatory design.

Studio Sorted had already developed a strong practice in involving communities in the design process through social-impact projects. They brought that same approach to Food Pharmer.

They collected input from his community. They built trust. They used that input to shape the brand. By the time the product launched, the community already felt ownership.

“When the brand launched, instead of us selling the brand to them, they already had a seat at the table while the brand was being created.”
That’s the difference between designing for people and designing with them. Most brands do the first. The second takes more work, but it builds something that templates can’t.

The AI-assisted Last Supper
Smash Guys wanted a mural. The space was awkward: extremely horizontal, very low height.

Durani’s team borrowed the composition from ‘The Last Supper’. The idea: put everyone who worked on the brand around the table. What makes this interesting is how they made it.
“Illustrator first created rough sketches. Then we collected photographs. The way we worked with AI surprised even me.”

“As artists, we could have created everything manually, but it would have required a huge amount of effort. There were also many rounds of changes because real people were being represented, and naturally, everyone had opinions.”

The mural is up at Smash Guys in Indiranagar. You can see it. And the process behind it is more interesting than the old arguments about whether AI belongs in creative work.

Beyond the Portfolio
If you apply for a senior role at Studio Sorted, he will find your Instagram.
“I openly tell people this. I check their Instagram. It gives me a sense of their personality. What people post on Instagram reflects what’s exciting them at that moment. A lot of those things never appear in their portfolio.”

He’s looking for obsession. For senior roles, he needs people who care about the margins on their CV: literally, the layout. If you’re going to lead design at his studio, you better be the kind of person who can’t turn it off.
For juniors, the bar is different. “If there’s just one thing about you that’s exceptionally good, that can be enough.”

The Ideas That Don’t Need a Client
Studio Sorted has started spawning side ventures. A full-fledged type foundry called Panic Press (publishing and printed matter). Other experiments that don’t fit neatly inside a client brief.

This isn’t diversification for the sake of revenue. It’s a philosophy about how a studio should work.

“When someone on the team has a strong interest or passion for something, we should create space for them to explore it.”

Durani wants Studio Sorted to be more than an agency: a platform where people can build ideas they care about.
“Client work pays the bills. But if you only do client work, you become dependent on somebody else giving you permission to create.”

The Vision Beyond the Agency
“I don’t want Studio Sorted to become predictable.” He wants it to become larger than an agency. A platform. A space for ideas. A place that produces brands, products, experiences, conversations, and culture.

“Scale for the sake of scale isn’t interesting. I’d rather create something that has influence. Something people want to participate in. Something people want to be associated with.”

And when I pressed him on what he wants people to think when they hear “Studio Sorted” ten years from now, his answer was telling: “Maybe it’ll still be an agency. Maybe it won’t. Maybe it’ll become a collection of different businesses. Maybe it’ll become a space. Maybe it’ll become something completely different.”

Most founders would find that uncertainty uncomfortable. He finds it freeing.

“We still often represent India using outdated visual languages. India doesn’t need to constantly look backward to prove that it’s Indian. We can create contemporary Indian design.” Durani said.

This is the thread running through everything Studio Sorted does. Not rejecting where they come from. Not copying what the West is doing. They are making something that feels new and still feels Indian.

“Designers have an important role to play in how a country sees itself. And how the rest of the world sees it. That’s a huge responsibility. But it’s also a huge opportunity.”

Most agencies know where they want to be in ten years. Durani is more interested in making sure Studio Sorted still has room to become something nobody saw coming. And if you’re building an agency in 2026, that might be the harder ambition to protect.

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Until next time,
Stay curious, stay Groundbreakin’.

—Dipaq