पाटी
Work · Paati · Craft

A nameplate is
a signature.

Paati paints nameplates by hand in Pune, and was losing on price to laser-cut boards that take an afternoon. We stopped competing inside that category and moved the frame: the last thing a family puts up on the biggest thing it will ever buy is its signature.

Client
Paati
Sector
Handpainted nameplates
Scope
Positioning · Two marks · Messaging · Brand playbook
Base
Pune
An illustrative Paati nameplate, handpainted with sunflowers, beside a teak doorIllustrative · sample family name
A Paati nameplate at the threshold · render
01THE CATEGORY SHIFT

What we stop selling, and what we sell instead.

The category is crowded with laser-cut boards that will always be quicker and cheaper. So Paati does not compete inside it. We moved the frame.

We stop sellingWe sell
A nameplateA signature
A product you orderA story you commission
Decor for the doorThe last act of moving in
Fonts and finishesPlaces, families and motifs
“DM to order”“Tell us where you’re from”
Say the material out loud

Paati paints on the same board the cheap sellers cut, and pretending otherwise would get it caught. The honest line is better: the board is the least of any nameplate. What matters is the hours of painting on top of it, and the week of asking that comes before that.

02TWO MARKS

One is signed. One is drawn at the door.

The Signed Name. The line above a Devanagari word, the shirorekha, is set by the script. The swash below it is drawn by hand. The language writes the top line and the maker writes the bottom one, so the name is set and the signature is signed. Read it once and the whole brand is there in one gesture.

The Threshold Knot. Long before anyone bought a plaque, someone drew a line around a grid of dots at the doorstep every morning: a kolam in Tamil Nadu, a muggu in Andhra, a rangoli in Maharashtra. One unbroken line, four dots, a closed loop. It is the doorway drawing every part of the country recognises.

Paati primary mark: the Signed Name in Devanagari with a hand-drawn swash
Paati second mark: the Threshold Knot, one unbroken line around four dots
03THE RITUALS

Four things that cost almost nothing and change what the object is.

Signed and numberedOn the back of every plate: the painter’s initials, the date and a running number. It costs a brush stroke, and it is the brand idea made physical.
The Story CardA guest cannot read a motif. A small card travels with the plate explaining what the flower is and why that town, so the family has the story to tell.
The Naming ConversationTwenty minutes, six questions, before any sketch. Where you are from, what grew outside the house you grew up in. This is not discovery for the design. It is the product.
The UnveilingOne photograph on the day it goes up. Not a review, not a testimonial. The door, on the day. That photo is the whole content engine.
Master line

Sign your home.

Campaign line

The last thing you do. The first thing they see.

04THE PLAYBOOK

The book the studio speaks from.

The idea, the category shift, both marks, the rituals and one line above four pillars. Written so a painter, a salesperson and a customer hear the same studio.

Paati brand playbook cover: the Signed Name, the last thing you do, the first thing they see
Playbook page: A nameplate is a signature, and the category shift
Playbook page: The Signed Name, the first mark
Playbook page: The Threshold Knot, the second mark
Playbook page: The rituals and the messaging house
05WHAT WE DID
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