BENGALURU: The Department of Tourism had on display a teaser of Brand Bengaluru’s draft logo at the first edition of the Namma Bengaluru Habba on Sunday and invited responses from visitors for the same.
A cut-out of the logo was erected near the pond on Sankey Tank where a large number of visitors stood taking selfies, posing along with it.
‘I Love Bengaluru’ written in an artistic form has impressed the tourism department officials who are now looking for feedback from people. This one is among the 1,700 entries that the department crowd sourced in a contest organised by it earlier this month.
According to Tourism Department director Manjula N, the logo was considered for display after being approved by artists from Chitrakala Parishath and National Gallery of Modern Art besides the department officials.When Tourism Minister Priyank Kharge was asked about the need for ‘Brand Bengaluru’, he was quick to say, “Why not?”
“Bengaluru has a beautiful history of 480 years. There is so much to know about the city. There is much more to explore than what is spoken about. We are the fourth best (in the country) when it comes to research and development. We are also in the list of cities for top ecosystems and house one of the biggest tech clusters,” he added.
Kharge said that creating Brand Bengaluru would mean better income for the city. “We see a footfall of 22.5 million per year at the airport. The idea is to ensure that each of them spend at least $100 when they visit the city,” he said.
Besides stimulating local economy, the minister believes that it would help generate employment as well.
The department has studied the impact branding has had on places including New York and London, besides places that have similar topography as Bengaluru.
“There is so much to Bengaluru. Besides its malls and pubs, there are beautiful parks and lakes. For instance, an outsider might not know much about the annual ‘Kadalekai Parishe’. Brand Bengaluru will put all these on a common platform where awareness is created about Bengaluru and its history,” he said.
What the logo means
The draft logo on display at Namma Bengaluru Habba is a combination of letters in both English and Kannada with red and white colours. The word ‘Bengaluru’, spelt as ‘Bengalooru’ in the logo sees the letters ‘oo’ written in Kannada font. The logo reads ‘I love Bengaluru’ while love is in the form
of a heart.