Building true value for your voice

We create integrated experiences to help brands stay radical and relevant in a connected world.

Waterfield Digital
Our story

A DesTech* consultancy that innovates your present for a better tomorrow

Leaf Design

We are a digital-first design consultancy collaborating with entrepreneurs and businesses to create integrated brand experiences driven by radical insights and coherent strategies. Since 2002, we've helped businesses to adapt to change across diverse industries such as finance, banking, travel, media, technology, healthcare, hospitality, and education. Our solutions are rooted in technology and designed to solve human problems; through compelling brand narratives, customer experiences and business innovations.

With our DesTech* approach, we believe that technology can uplift the human experience when done right. Today, it's the primary lever to transform our lives, showcase new opportunities with exponential speed, and inspire and elevate people's expectations.

Whether it’s future-proofing the world’s most progressive businesses, re-energising brands or helping new entrants penetrate the market, our work is defined by cohesive thinking, provocative storytelling and meaningful experiences.

Leaf at a glance

Making big moves
to accelerate
meaningful change

Leaf at a glance

150+

Projects launched

20+

Years in business

01

Team
Working together

Where our shared values and diverse perspective converge

Working together

At Leaf, we believe in the power of collaboration to create a cohesive outcome. Our methods of working, playing and co-creating are based on these foundations of the work we do and with whom we associate. This makes us deliver results that outlast tomorrow for an intelligent future.

Our multidisciplinary team goes beyond designers to field experts and educators to tech engineers for co-ideating solutions with our clients as their partners. Looking into what is essential, we honour cultural values and endless iterations with attention to the details.

Through this, we recognise the diverse backgrounds, skills, and expertise that digital-first thinking has to offer to ignite newer perspectives and solve real problems.

Explore careers

Our leadership

We’re a group of change-makers and dreamers, all entrepreneurs at heart

Sumit Patel

Director

Sumit Patel

Sumit has been at the forefront of the company's strategic business initiatives since its inception in 2002. As a brand transformation architect, he assists brands in navigating modern-day challenges by leveraging the power of good design to drive growth, innovation, and impact.

Prior to Leaf’s establishment, Sumit held leadership positions in Experience Design (XD) teams at both TBWA Interactive and Euro RSCG. He also played a crucial creative role at Rediff.com as part of a founding team of digital web services, working alongside the late Anvar Alikhan. Sumit brings over two decades of experience working across a diverse range of sectors, such as finance, healthcare, technology, e-commerce, and the service industry.

He is a strong advocate of "design for all," which aims to ensure that the intent of creation meets the needs of all people, regardless of age, gender, ability, or cultural background, including future generations. He is also very passionate about emerging technologies that can positively impact people's lives and enhance customer experiences by putting empathy first.

Sumit holds a master's degree in Communication Design from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. His enthusiasm and involvement in education make him a frequent visitor to design schools, where he aims to push the boundaries and rethink the future of design education.

Sandeep Ozarde

Director

Sandeep Ozarde

Sandeep is responsible for Business Development, Digital Transformation, Sustainability and Innovation by Design Thinking. The rise of conscious consumers are increasingly becoming intrinsic reality of the economy worldwide, which is all about improving how customers are served. He brings over 24 years of experience in understanding and designing immersive consumer experiences across industries including Travel, Healthcare, Retail, Hospitality, Banking, Technology, Transportation, Education and Services.

Prior to Leaf establishment, Sandeep has witnessed the rise of both digital and design in India from ancillary roles to the bellwethers they are today. He was part of the founding team at Rediff.com, the pioneering NASDAQ listed Indian news and lifestyle portal that brought web news, web search, web chat, social media, email and e-commerce into vogue in India.

The human experience assumes exponentially more significance with the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The advancements in Artificial Intelligence mean that businesses are now even closer to the expectations, passions and emotions of consumers. Be it through Machine Learning which helps businesses stay on top of changing consumer needs, or Data Science which helps deliver communication built on real, relatable insights, or the Internet of Things which helps enrich the quality of life by automating smart communication between devices.

He is actively researching on Data Science, Data Privacy, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Linguistics, Climate Change and how Future of Design can influence the betterment of our society, human nature, governments and our planet at large. Sandeep likes filling the blanks between work with reading and blogging on an array of subjects. He expands his perspective regularly through enthusiastic travels across the globe. The accompanying joie de vivre is something he hopes shines through in his work.

Mahendra Patel

Chief Mentor

Mahendra Patel

Prof. Mahendra Patel is the Chief Mentor at Leaf. His focus is to ensure that Leaf lives up to its mission and vision, while also developing and mentoring exceptional people in an inclusive culture.

He is known to be a prominent design mentor with teaching experience that spans more than 39 years where has taught at NID, Ahmedabad and conducted numerous workshops across India. He has also taught at the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States, the Nova Scotia College of Arts in Canada, the Christchurch College of Arts in New Zealand, and the Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture in Pakistan.

Prof. Mahendra was the first Indian to receive The Gutenberg International Award in 2010 for his contribution to 'Type Design Development of Indian Scripts’. Over the course of his design teaching career, he has received numerous prestigious awards and accolades.

His extensive work on Font Design ‘Neue Frutiger Devanagari’ matching Neue Frutiger (Designed by Adrian Frutiger), has been released by MonoType Corporation.

Prof. Mahendra Patel earned a degree in Advance Graphic Design from the School of Design, Basel, Switzerland, after studying at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU Baroda, and the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Since 2004, he has retired from being a full-time faculty at NID and currently spends his time mentoring and conducting workshops across India.

Awards and recognitions

Recognitions
we’re proud of

Awards

2021 • Kyoorius Blue Elephant

Mool NeoBank / Digital Design

Awards

2020 • Indigo Design Awards Silver

Veena World Travel /
Digital Transformation

Awards

2018 • Kyoorius Blue Elephant

Travosh / Identity System

Awards

2018 • Kyoorius In-Book Awards

Sandoitchi / Identity System

Awards

2017 • Kyoorius In-Book Awards

Avendus / Identity System

Awards

2016 • Kyoorius Blue Elephant

Lokmat / Space Design

Awards

2015 • Kyoorius Blue Elephant

Compoz / Digital Design

Our partners

These brands aren’t trophies, they are friends we’ve made on our journey

Partners