Inkoniq is an award winning UX driven product engineering company, founded in 2011 with offices in Bangalore and New York. Inkoniq provides full stack product engineering capabilities in the space of Mobile, Web and IoT.
Inkoniq won the best Startup award at Silicon India Startup City in 2012. Inkoniq is also featured among the top 20 promising enterprise mobility companies of 2014 by CIO and top 12 iOS development companies in India by ContractIQ. The mobile apps and websites designed by Inkoniq have been showcased at TED, WIRED & INK conferences. Inkoniq’s portfolio comprises of Fortune 500 brands and hottest global start-ups including brands like Lowe’s, Flipkart, Townsquare Media, Zoomcar, NDTV, Sesame Street, Star Sports and many others.
Here we had a chat with Rajesh Kumar, Founder and CEO, Inkoniq.
How was Inkoniq born (and when)?
Prior to starting Inkoniq, I was heading the key experiences division that focuses on the user experience and mobile apps at AOL. Around the time when AOL acquired huffington post, we had the option to continue whatever we’re doing or pursue our dreams.
The idea had been bubbling for the years and we saw an opportunity when we were laid off.
The biggest dilemma at that point was product or services. One of the things that was common among all us co-founders was that we were all ux driven. So, collectively we decided until we arrive at a product idea that we feel passionate about, we’ll start a service organisation focused UX design and mobile app development.
With the little bit of savings I had, three of the co-founders and myself started Inkoniq in Feb 2011 with a vision to be an iconic brand in the space of UX driven app development.
Tell us about your designers/animators. Did they go into fine art or design schools? Or software? How do you pick them up?
Our hiring criteria is to find the best and the passionate. We’re always focussed on hiring the right talent from the typical ‘A’ Grade design schools like IIT, NID, NIFT and Shristi, specially emphasizing on creativity and innovation. At the same time, we’re not so hung up on ‘A’ Grade schools, as we’ve seen some of our best designers have been self-taught designers. We have a stringent interview process that ensures only the best make it, who are put through a rigorous training program to deliver excellence.
How would you define the design style at Inkoniq?
Our design style emphasis on following principles:
Innovative designs through informed decisions based on design research
Keep it simple
Detail-oriented with an emphasis on micro interactions and motion designs
Iterative approach
Build – Test – Learn
What does Inkoniq do which sets it apart from other digital agencies?
We combine our expertise in UX, technical mastery and deep understanding of marketing to craft successful experiences for global brands and hottest startups.
The leadership at Inkoniq has a rich experience of over a decade and half working with top agencies in NY, bringing about the innovation, process, fit and finish, and attention to detail that you’ll find only amongst the top global design agencies. We’re fully integrated design and agile development company and provide a complete product engineering, maintenance and support services to our global clients.
Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up?
Steve jobs has been a biggest inspiration.
Who was the most influential personality on your career in Brand Building?
Influences were many, right from my mom to my boss, back at AOL.
How important is the focus on good design in Inkoniq?
User experience is everything for us. We eat, sleep, talk and think only design. We believe in creating awesome, not good.
Do you function like a traditional advertising agency? Or would you call yourself more of a graphic design/branding/social media agency?
We’re not an advertisement agency. We would like to brand ourselves as user experience driven product engineering company.
What do you feel about the state of design in Brand Building in India?
We’re living in exciting times. Awareness of UX in both enterprises and start-ups is at all time high. This makes for a great opportunity in the world fastest growing economy.
Any other Indian ‘Digital Agencies’ you admire?
We’re too busy with ourselves, never had time to admire others.
Can you share a successful case study of one of your campaigns?
We’ve had multiple successful case studies, some of our recent favorites are the work we’ve done for Flipkart, Exide-life, Chumbak and Manipal. You can check out our showreel here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z84oYyAhFNs&feature=youtu.be&list=PLc8RU3DFPYMhC41VIpfSmnrWpQmJ4tPAR
What is your dream project?
Our dream project is to build something to transform grassroots India.
What advice do you have for aspiring creative professionals? Would you advise them to take on Digital Agency as a career option? Or Advertising and brand building?
Stay hungry, stay foolish. Be original in whatever you do, there are lot of copycats, but we need more originals.
What apps do you commonly use on your phones?
Flipboard, Email, Whatsapp and Audible.
Mac or PC?
Mac.
Who would you like to take out for dinner?
If you are a beautiful girl, then you.
What’s on your iPod?
iPod is dead, I listen a lot of Audiobooks and a big fan of David Guetta.
What’s your Twitter Handle?
@Inkoniq and @rajkumar282
Would have liked to see some of your work…
Hello Saumya,
Thanks for your interest. You can see some of our feature work in the Showreel above
Also, here are couple pieces from our portfolio:
https://inkoniq.com/case-studies/perfios/
https://inkoniq.com/case-studies/flipkart/