About Colette & Yvonne in Colette & Yvonne, 2- Ground Floor, Minerva Mansion, Super Cinema Lane, Grant Road, Mumbai

C&Y hoisted its flag in Jan 2010. Started by sisters Colette Austin and Yvonne Sheikhawat, along with a group of like minded addicts, out of their love for branding, design, and all things aesthetic. Business Head Farah Ahmed, tempered by her 15 year stint in Advertising, provides the perfect balance between form and function. Firmly ensconced in eclectic premises and tucked away in the by lanes of Grant Road, (with a resident cat, a tropical back yard and barber chair makers as nieghbours) the siblings are passionately hard at work with what they do best: Corporate Identity Programs, Brand Harmonization, Brand Architecture, Brand Restaging, Retail, Space & Environmental Branding, Editorial Design, Packaging and Brand Custodianship. Between brands, they experiment in Lifestyle, Furniture and Jewelry Design to provide a 360 degree design experience. Do drop in. They serve the best french press cuppa in town.

Resident Design Addicts include Swati Paranjpe, Jasmine Solanki, Arlene D'souza, Pramod Jangam and Gloria Terron.


Backgrounds

Colette Austin
Colette started her career in 1986 working with some leading agencies (FCB ULKA, Trikaya Grey, JWT, Karishma) before a long and final 17-year stint at Lowe Lintas.

She has been behind several award winning campaigns on a wide range of clients; including Unilever, HSBC, Premier Automobiles, Cadbury's, Lakme, Wrangler, Woodland Shoes, VIP Luggage, Lux, The Oberoi & Taj Group of Hotels, Raymond & Park Avenue, Crompton Greaves, Parle, Boots etc.

In 2001, she started dCell, a specialized strategic & branding division of Lowe Lintas. As the President & Design Director, she spearheaded memorable projects for clients across sectors such as Unilever (Red Label Tea, Bru Coffee, Lux, Liril, Hamam etc.) Blow Plast, Ergonomics, Croma, Wills Lifestyle and The Mobile Store, Signal Toothpaste (North Africa & The Middle East)


Yvonne Shekhawat
Yvonne started her journey with Saatchi and Saatchi followed by a 3-year stint with Enterprise Advertising. In 1991 she moved to Ambience Advertising to embark on an 18 year long career stint.

As Executive Creative Director, she headed campaigns across print, film and outdoor on leading Indian Brands; including Lakme Lever, Lakme Fashion Week, Elle 18, P&G, Thumbs Up, Citra, Vadilal Ice cream, Marico Industries, MTDC, TVS, Garden Silk Mills, Welspun, Fantasie Chocolates, Trent-Westside, Shaw Wallace, Reliance India Mobile, Planet M, Sweet Choice, DHL, Park Avenue, Manzoni, Citibank, Diagio, Venkys Chicken, Vazir Sultan Tobacco Industries, Interplaza-Glitterati and Taj Chocolates.

She has won a number of CAG and AD Club awards.

Farah Ahmed
Farah has spent 13 years in Account Management handling clients that span a vast category mix, learning’s of which help in cross category proliferation.

Her vast client list includes -P&G Pantene, Lakme Unilever, Emirates, Tata Tea (was part of the conceptualization and role out of the category changing Jaago Re campaign), Deutche Bank (their first foray into retail banking, Croma (launch of the brand entry into the electronic retail space for the first time), VIP luggage, Ginger Hotels (launch of the business first budget hotel in India), Westside, Anne French amongst others.

In 2010, she decided to join the Austin sisters as business head and be a part of their design journey.