BENGALURU: Bengaluru becomes the first Indian city to join global cities such as New York, Singapore and London in getting its own tourism logo. Designed by Nammur, a Bengaluru-based design startup, the logo was unveiled in December 2017 but the merchandise with the trademark design wasn’t available until August 2018.
There’s a lot on offer for lovers of the city: T-shirts, pen drives, notepads and power banks. But of the lot, T-shirts seem to be the most popular, says M Venkateshwara Rao, Nammur’s COO. “Although, the response isn’t as good as we expected, it feels great that the design is getting recognition as Bengaluru’s official logo,” he says. The startup has received orders from around 300 customers offline and 100 online, so far.
Rushi Patel, co-founder of Nammur, adds, the red and black logo uses English and Kannada script, where the first two letters and the last letter (‘Be’ and ‘u’) are highlighted for emphasis. “We felt this message was the best way to sum up the city. Using a hybrid script allowed us to pay ode to its regional status as well. The emphasis on those three letters was to let people know that Bengaluru is a city that welcomes and encourages everyone to create their own identity,” says Rushi.
Venkateshwara says that the change of the city’s name from Bangalore to Bengaluru was a blessing in disguise since it gave way to this interpretation. The products on offer feature an iconic Bengaluru landmark or a lesser known detail about the city.
“For example, one of our designs feature the numbers 1537. Many do not know that was the year the foundation of the city was laid. We wanted our designs to offer something of value to people,” he says.The government of Karnataka and the tourism department held a contest last year calling people to create an identity for the city. “We create designs that have a story behind them. So, we were keen on taking part in this initiative,” says Rushi.