How Sanjay Gandhi National Park got its logo

Designed by commercial artist Niyam Mayekar, Sanjay Gandhi National Park's new logo is all about the unexplored biodiversity in the dense forest that is located right in Mumbai's urban jungle

If you've visited Sanjay Gandhi National Park's (SGNP) Facebook page recently, you would have come across SGNP's new logo. The engaging green and white artwork comprising sketches of spotted deer, leopard, a bird and a bamboo tree is underlined with silhouettes of some of the city's landmarks. The design, created by the commercial artist Niyam Mayekar, was institutionalised as the park's logo last year in July.

The final park logo on Facebook

"The logo has helped to create a uniform identity for SGNP. We didn't create noise about it earlier as we wanted it to seep into the park's identity. We are also in the process of creating uniform boards at the park that will bear this logo," says naturalist Shardul Bajikar, who was involved with the development process of the logo.

The initial sketches by Mayekar of the leopard and bamboo trees which were made for the logo

Mayekar, who hails from advertising and design backgrounds, is a regular visitor of the park, and shares the brief for this exercise, "The common public is unaware about the park's unexplored biodiversity. They just roam in the outer area but forest comprises a lot of flora and fauna. The logo helps to graphically define and communicate the identity of the park as an unaltered, un-manicured wilderness area that lies right within the heart of Mumbai."

Niyam Mayekar

He took two months to design the logo and sourced images of spotted deer, leopard as well as bamboo trees from SGNP authorities in order to perfect the details in his design. The subtle colour scheme of green and white was to avoid any clutter in the logo. Moreover, he juxtaposed the wilderness with some iconic tourist landmarks. "I have created a city skyline with landmarks like the Rajabai Tower, CST building, Gateway of India as well as the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower at the airport. The idea was to identify SGNP as a landmark for tourists and thereby, attract positive public attention to it. As a result, in this visual representation, we have included Mumbai's popular and iconic tourist landmarks as well," reveals Mayekar.

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