Kerning, in publication design, is the process of adjusting the spacing in between the characters within a word, to make it look visually aligned and appealing. For Shriya Nagi, a seasoned professional in the Branding & Design segment, having a rich vein of over a decade of experience working for some of the leading design agencies including the Director of Content & Design for the Design India Magazine, formly known as Pool Magazine, branding is the true representation of an organizational culture, exhibiting its civilization, conduct and above all its purpose.

However, the phenomenality of its development has not seen the complete day light, which may be attributed to a probable lack of design awareness in the society as a whole. Her attempt to carry the "kerning phenomena", into the branding arena and use it as one of the tools to evolve brands for next millennium was the reason why she decided to come up with her own branding and design agency Kern Culture. Kern Culture was created with a clear vision to help businesses kern their organizational cultures and stand out within the horizon of the Industrial sphere.

In today's world, customer experience has emerged as the crucial differentiating factor that decides the success of any brand or product. As an integrated branding and design agency, Kern Culture offers a complete A to Z set of branding solutions with a holistic approach that formulates the business side of the design before moving over to the actual implementation process. Operating across the verticals of Branding, Digital Marketing, and Spatial Designs, User Experience (UX) is at the core of everything undertaken at Kern Culture.

The team consists of designers, marketers and strategists that helps the Agency ditch out a complete integrated solution for its clients. From helping real estate players developing entire tech. portals from scratch, curating online content for brands, and even conducting overall on-site and virtual event designing ­ Kern Culture incorporates UX as its central theme for all its engagements.

The organization is also profoundly involved in the Indian MSME sector, helping local brands to promote their products and services through their new vertical `Brand NEEV' (Nurturing Empowering Entrepreneurial Ventures). Brand NEEV has been initiated to empower small business in India to take a leap forward and become brands of the future.

During one of her earlier spells, Shriya Nagi attended to a prominent local F&B brand based in Bikaner, Rajasthan. With 200-year-old legacy, the client wanted to transform into a `Glocal' brand. To understand the essence of the culture, as the principal designer, Shriya extensively travelled across majority of big cities of Rajasthan to pick elements and specific icons which represents the region and delivered an appropriate brand solution. Similar approach is being incorporated at Kern Culture. It was a deliberate attempt to transform a local brand into a global entity. The brand positioning along with design strategy had to be put down in a specific manner to appease the west-ern audience but maintaining the true cultural philosophy of the brand. Today, Kern Culture is in the process to designing the entire virtual presence for the Rajasthan-based `glocal' brand.

"Kern Culture has embraced design thinking approach in whatever we do, irrespective of whether it's a spatial design experience, creating digital presence for a product/service, curating a complete on-site event landscape, or undertaking the digital amplification of any brand." ­ Shriya Nagi, Founder & Managing Director.

Kern Culture is also apt in designing on-site as well as online conferences. The team at Kern Culture has success-fully designed over 40 conferences globally for clients spread across the Middle East, Africa, Europe and India in recent times. The organisation has successfully launched a large number of turnkey projects from brand launch to its execution. With the advent of the Covid-19 Pandemic, people had to re-sort to virtual conferencing. Kern Culture has consistently helped organizers create an identity in the virtual space, including a virtual experience for one of India's largest kids' festival.

Gearing up for the Upcoming Era of Multi-disciplinary approach
The upcoming decade will be an era of multi-disciplinary approach. In order to succeed and thrive, the designer, the developer and the brand owner must put their heads together and work in sync. For the future roadmap ahead, Shriya Nagi reiterates her desire to take Kern Culture to the next level by expanding the portfolio of offerings and collabo-rating with like-minded, passionate individuals and diving deeper into the arrays of diverse industrial sectors.