Making a Sane Difference
One afternoon in his 20 odd year career as a freelance writer in the world of design, branding and content, Omkar looked around the conference room he found himself in. They were somewhere on the 156th slide. The slide said: "With meticulous brand stewardship, we cultivate a dynamic brand identity that converges authenticity and cutting-edge aesthetics, forging an unparalleled emotional connection."
He decided there is a saner way to do things.
Thus was born Sane Difference. No other design company in India has worked with as many brands as we have in such a short span - from the scale and size of the project (a 30K identity exercise on a napkin) to the category (tourism to social enterprises to NGOs to corporate to individuals).
It's Sane & Simple
At Sane Difference, we have never had a 'business plan'. We haven't pioneered a radically new way of doing things. There wasn't one genius idea or dream project that catapulted us to success. But our unwavering belief that things can always be better have helped build, support and grow some of India's most audacious ideas into brands.
Belief 1: It’s our job to know what the client needs, not the client’s.
Belief 2: A presentation deck with more than 20 slides needs clearer thinking.
Belief 3: A project that spills into the weekend needs better planning during the week.
Narrative that makes people care.
A business is what you do. A brand is who you are. A narrative gives the business an emotional appeal. And when people really like a brand, it has an unfair advantage. A voracious learner, Omkar Sane has learned narrative from the best strategists, designers and books for over 2 decades. He is an alumnus of Sir J J Institute of Applied Art. He is a bestselling author of two books, he is an award-winning screenwriter with two films under his name. He has been a teacher at XIC for 16 years. He has built Storysurf - a playground for creativity, a place that believes if you are alive, you are creative. Food and mentoring are his two true callings.
Content is king. Context is king kong.
Riya studied in Calcutta and today is a writer, brand strategist, and community builder. She is the founder of The Nook, a creative collective rooted in writing, reflection, and slow thinking. She has spearheaded creative and content at WeUnlearn, Wakefit, while her writing has been featured in The Wire, The Swaddle, Airplane Poetry Movement, and more. Never one to be content, today, at Sane Difference, she works on brand narrative, shapes it into Linkedin strategy, social media, newsletters. Poetry and more poetry move Riya like nothing else.
Design is a horizontal, not a vertical.
For us, design isn't a sales pitch or style, it's about ideas. Our design has a touch of visual wit that rewards you for your attention. Perhaps, even makes you smile. Aishwarya Khoche leads the design vertical. In the past, she has worked for brands like Bisleri, Godrej, Oswal Publishers, Goethe Max Mueller Bhavan and Zapurza Museum of Art & Culture. At Sane Difference, she is responsible for interpreting brand narrative into design, crafting identities, building visual-systems and of course, the one true bane of all designers: making decks. Typography and food are her two first loves.
We are...
Brothers. Sisters. Sons. Daughters.
Sunshine chasers. Long-lunch lovers.
Amateur badminton, piano, and ukulele players.
Meme forwarders. Nap promoters.
People who like each other and look out for each other,
Who take growth seriously: our own, and each other’s.
We are ordinary people into ordinary things,
trying to make a sane difference in the world we’re in.
It’s a lovely life. And we actually have time to live it.
Design and branding is just what we do. It’s not our purpose in life. We’re still looking for that.
Let's Chat
If you hiss, meow, roar, hoot, howl, gibber, or coo, hit us up, and let’s see what grows!
If you are a writer, developer, designer, agency, client, confused, clear, focused, lost, write in.
