Tagline ‘Our Heritage Your Destination’ with logo to be integrated into all promotional efforts

Mysore/Mysuru: With an aim to establish a distinct brand identity for Mysuru, making it instantly recognisable on the global stage, a new Brand Mysuru logo and an accompanying tagline for brand promotion were unveiled by Minister for Tourism H.K. Patil. The event was jointly organised by Mysuru District Administration and Mysuru Tourism Department at Zilla Panchayat (ZP)Hall in city last evening. 

A mascot named ‘Gajju’, featuring an elephant adorned in Mysuru Peta and draped in traditional ‘panche’ or dhoti, has been introduced to symbolise the essence of Mysuru.

The logo design comprises two caparisoned elephants alongside the mythical bird ‘Gandabherunda’, the emblem of the former Mysuru Kingdom. The tagline, “Our Heritage Your Destination,” accompanies the logo and will be integrated into all promotional efforts related to Mysuru tourism. 

In August this year, as part of Mysuru Dasara, the Tourism Department under Ministry of Tourism’s Swadesh Darshan 2.0 scheme had invited entries for ‘Branding Mysuru Competition-2023’. The topic for the competition was ‘Unending Nest of Happiness Namma Mysuru.’ 

The four-category contest was to design a captivating logo and tagline, an endearing mascot and an innovative souvenir. The last contest was to write a blog describing a favourite place to visit or activity to do in Mysuru.

Winners of logo, mascot contests

Over 150 participants took part in the logo design competition and L.A. Raghavendra secured the first prize for the logo, M. Balaswamy won the second prize and Ridwa Shyla Rai secured the third prize. The tagline, ‘Our Heritage Your Destination,’ was selected from the entry by Ridwa Shyla Rai.

 In addition to the logo and tagline, a mascot competition was held, with Aditi Pandit winning the first prize for creating ‘Gajju’, an elephant symbolising the gentle giant intrinsic to Mysuru’s culture. The mascot exudes a child-like energy, radiating happiness and welcoming people to explore Mysuru’s rich heritage. B. Praneeth Aashwinay secured the second prize in mascot design and the third prize was bagged by Sayan Pandit. 

In souvenir design, B. Praneeth Aashwinay secured the first prize with a depiction of a diwan, the administrative head of the Princely State of Mysore. T. Prathibha and L. Preetham Bharadwaj won the second and third prizes, respectively. 

Additionally, Sindhu S. Shastry claimed the first prize in the blog contest with her blog ‘Discover Mysuru: Where the Past Paints the Present’. Meghana Bhaskara won the second prize with her blog ‘Rendezvous with Mysuru’ and S.M. Meenakshi won the third prize for her blog ‘MYSURU is a Multifaceted, Multicultural and Multidimensional city’. 

All winners were awarded a cash prize of Rs. 20,000 (first), Rs. 10,000 (second) and Rs. 5,000 (third). After all the entries were submitted, the Tourism Department made a mix-and-match to select the final logo and tagline with the help of Prakash Chikkapalya that was later approved by Deputy Commissioner Dr. K.V. Rajendra.