Pali Palavathanan is co-founder and creative director of London-based TEMPLO. The cause-led branding and comms agency works with clients like GF Smith, the British Council and the United Nations.
Design
What would your monograph be called?
The Red Box. I grew up as a refugee in Canada, and every year we got our Christmas presents from welfare – a red box full of gloves, woolly hat, scarf as well as some small toys.
One year the boxes for both me and my sister didn’t arrive, which was obviously a sad moment. A month later, my sister and I were building snowmen and my hand hit something hard in the snow. The Christmas boxes had been delivered, but placed behind the house as no-one was in.
It was one of my happiest moments and still stays with me today – as proof of humans’ need to care for others more than ever, and the belief that governments have a duty to help families get back on their feet. You can look back at TEMPLO’s body of work and trace it all back to these moments I experienced growing up.
What recent design work made you a bit jealous?
Being a massive Liverpool fan, I’d love to have tackled the recent rebrand. Knowing what it means to the people of Liverpool and the club’s social responsibility, it would be a fantastic privilege. And the fact they’ve just become Premier League champions again would be the icing on the cake.
Bulletproof’s newly refreshed brand for Liverpool FC
What’s an unusual place you get inspiration from?
Ideas come from all sorts of places – you just have to be open to them. Everything from lucid dreams and that half-state before waking to listening to intense political commentary can trigger a new creative path to explore.
Often, I find that my meandering walk to the studio, which has no pre-determined route, exposes me to enough of the ever-changing environment and the accidental collisions of everyday life to dislodge creative blocks, and activate new ways of thinking.
Name something that is brilliantly designed, but overlooked.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
What object in your studio best sums up your taste?
My collection of puzzles and Rubik’s cubes. I am obsessed with problem-solving – I always carry some on me.
Some of Pali Palavathanan’s puzzles
Leadership
What feedback felt brutal at the time, but turned out to be useful?
I remember coming home from school, proud of getting 96% on a test. My mother looked at me and, without blinking, and asked where the other 4% was. I love that immigrant mindset – the fierce work ethic, the constant pursuit of better. It has definitely helped me push myself forward in my career.
What’s an under-appreciated skill that design leaders need?
The willingness to create an environment where other people can have better ideas than you.
A good design leader should avoid smothering the creatives, allowing space for other designers to develop and gain confidence – to express themselves and not feel the need to show me something I was already expecting. I enjoy it when others show me a better, newer way.
I would hate to be stuck within my own ideas, knowing only what I already know.
What keeps you up at night?
Injustice.
The future.
Black holes.
What trait is non-negotiable in new hires?
The one thing I cannot help nurture or teach is fire in your belly. That thirst and hunger to keep pushing, to not accept mediocrity – to find that missing 4%.
Complete this sentence, “I wish more clients…”
… didn’t treat design agencies as suppliers and, instead viewed them as partners in the creation of real, meaningful change.
At TEMPLO, we do our best work when there is a strong mutual trust, and a genuine co-creation process rather than a transactional relationship.