An Indian city’s design identity

IIID is spearheading a festival of Art, Architecture and Design from 2nd to the 10th of April at the M.G. Road Boulevard. The festival celebrates the dual nature of our city that is as much in love with its obuttu as it is with its techies; its pete as much as its cantonment. MG Road will be the venue for art and design interventions and the projects are positioned to create community involvement and facilitate dialogue with people from various walks of life.

To conceptually present our urban condition and reflect on the change in our identity. The festival also intends to ʻInvigorate and celebrateʼ the design culture of Bengaluru!

What shall we call a celebration of design in Bengaluru?

Make it hybrid and new. Let it be playful. Let it be true to the city. Gayathri Shetty, the festival chief and IIID gave us the opportunity and pushed us; at SPREAD, to concoct a name that would have as its base, the hybrid nature of the city, with a generous helping of design, a dash of local character and a sound that would attract everyone possible in the city of Bengaluru to the idea of design. While Bengaluru has morphed into a sprawling metro, it continues to have a small town/hamlet/village/uru identity.

So, here we have it - Designuru with its sweet and sour sound is Bengaluru’s own design identity. Combining design and the idea of place or village to become a new word that represents both the identity of the place and the people. Instead of saying ‘I am a designer’, you can now say,

‘I am designuru. Bengaluru is designuru.'

How might we create a fresh design identity for Bengaluru?

Design when it is native to Bengaluru, gets its own special identity thus appropriately, we proposed that Bengaluru’s own festival be named Designuru. Which is thus, a hybrid, playful, unselfconscious and celebratory new design identity for Bengaluru .

Bengaluru is a city where tradition meets the modern, where art culture and architecture embrace the “now” and co-exist with a rich heritage in perfect harmony.

Taking note of these attributes, the Designuru logo has been inspired to embrace complexity and represent it harmoniously while creating a circular, growing identity.

Clues to help you discover and relate to the Designuru identity.

Land at / Fly from the Kempegowda International Airport, one of the best airports in the country with state of the art facilities that are comfortable yet high on the tech quotient. Ranked as the Third Busiest Airport in terms of passenger traffic in India handling over 18 million passengers and roughly 400 aircraft movements per day.

You can avail one of the countless BMTC buses from the airport. These offer public transport and run the highest number of Volvo buses operated by a public transport company in India.

Experience a major traffic rush as you enter the city on the cable-stayed KR Puram Bridge on the busy Bangalore-Chennai highway and the network of flyovers that define the map of the city.

Commute on the Bengaluru Metro or Namma Metro, literally "Our Metro”, a sleek and super fast metro system that connects the denizens making it a truly modern metropolis.

An Auto ride to Lalbagh ('lal' meaning red, 'bagh' meaning garden) gives you a taste of the local culture. Iconic to Bengaluru, autos are a fast and popular mode of transport for thousands of Bangaloreans. Dating back to the era of Hyder Ali, Lalbagh in Shantinagar is so called due to the abundance of red roses aplenty. Inspired by London’s Crystal Palace it has a spacious glass house, which hosts the city’s annual flower show.

Set amidst the luxurious green gardens of Vasanthnagar, the Bangalore palace is the spectacular summer retreat of the Wodeyar dynasty, inspired by the Windsor castle. Built in the Tudor style, complete with Gothic windows, foiled windows, battlements and turrets, it is constructed largely of wood and famous for its carving and paintings with an open courtyard where you can enjoy international concerts, art exhibitions and cultural festivals.

At the seat of the state legislature of Karnataka, you find the Vidhana Soudha, an iconic and imposing building, constructed in the Mysore Neo-Dravidian style. One of the largest legislative buildings in India on Dr. Ambedkar Road, it incorporates elements of both Indo-Saracen and Dravidian styles.

A walk down Vittal Mallya Road brings you to UB City, a luxury skyline shopping mall located in the heart of Bengaluru. Spread over 13 acres of land, the winner of the Architecture Award for Leisure & Hospitality at the Bloomberg Asia Pacific Commercial Property Awards 2010, stands tall.

As you saunter the city, you discover the Dodda Aladha Mara, literally translated as Big Banyan Tree, a 400 year old hidden gem and one of the oldest life forms of Bengaluru.

Bengaluru is a city planned in circles. This circular nature is represented by the alphabet D on the identity: A graphic semi-circular D captures the circular plan of the city.

Yakshagana is a traditional performing art theatre form that involves story telling through music, dance and drama. It is synonymous to Bengaluru. The Yakshagana Head dress forms the Designuru identity; an amalgamation of all the signature elements. The style applied to the typography is inspired by curves and broken alphabets of traditional Kannada script.

The Designuru identity has been inspired by the detail, beauty and cultural meaning inherent in Yakshagana; the iconic modern architectural structures from across the metropolis and the welcoming inclusiveness that one feels in Bengaluru, lovingly called “Namma Bengaluru” by us locals. The symbol blends culture with simplicity traditional handmade design with geometry. It is dynamic and flexible, adapting to express many ideas.

The Designuru brand, identity and website is SPREAD’s design contribution to the festival, to spread the design ethos in Bengaluru. Do Enjoy!

The organisers are doing a brilliant job...congratulations! Everyone is putting in their time, effort and resources - to seed this reflection on Bengaluru’s urban matrix in relation to Art and Design intervention, so do jump in, follow, join and be 'designuru' on Facebook or instagram Visit the website www.designuru.com and the festival with your friends!

In the papers http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/designuru-arts-architecture-and-design-fest-in-bengaluru/1/631500.html