india

Updated: Dec 24, 2017 22:57 IST

Facing criticism for its frothing lakes and potholes on roads, the Karnataka government on Sunday launched the Bengaluru city logo, the first Indian city to do so, in a bid to resurrect its image as a tourism destination. With this, it joins cities like Amsterdam in The Netherlands and New York in the US to have its own logo.

The logo was designed by Nammur, a design start-up, which won a contest and received a prize money of Rs 5 lakh from the government.

Speaking to HT, state tourism minister, Priyank Kharge, said although the city was a brand in terms of investment, it was not so for tourism. "We wanted to remedy this and portray the rich history and culture of the city," he said. It was his idea to come up with the logo.

Kharge said the government wanted to bring the city on par with Amsterdam and New York as a brand to attract tourists and showcase its cosmopolitan nature. This, he said, was highlighted in the logo, where ‘Be’ and ‘U’ in Bengaluru are highlighted in red. “This represents the welcoming character of the city, where people of all identities will be respected," he said.

Nammur’s Vinod Kumar said the challenge in the design was to incorporate the city's rich cultural heritage and yet show how it is changing. “It is for this reason that some of the English letters have been designed to look similar to characters in the Kannada script,” he said. The logo was also designed to subconsciously teach Kannada, he said. The company has also launched merchandise that will represent Bengaluru.