← projects

Odisha Design Week

A brand identity for a cultural design festival that balances traditional influences with contemporary design to create a recognizable and scalable system.

Odisha Design Week brand visuals and applications: logo, posters, and identity system.

Overview

Odisha Design Week is a design festival that bridges the region's cultural heritage with contemporary practice, through events and programming that raise awareness of design and promote Odisha as a destination in the global design conversation.

As a first-time festival, it needed credibility with participants, the public, artisans, and sponsors, including the Government of Odisha and private partners.

Problem

Before

  • No distinct brand identity or visual language
  • No cohesive web presence
  • Hard to reach broad audience & win sponsors

After

  • Culturally rooted, globally legible identity
  • Cohesive expression across 20+ touchpoints
  • Recognized with India's Best Design Award 2023
Strategic direction: cultural reference informing form, symmetry, and visual language.
Cultural reference informing form, symmetry, and visual language.
Design exploration: final identity built through geometric structure and composition.
Final identity built through geometric structure and composition.

The logomark traces its form directly from the sacred architecture of Odisha.

Source

Mukteswara Temple, a 10th-century gem of Odisha's Kalinga architecture, known for its intricately carved arch.

Abstraction

The arch form was stripped of ornamentation and redrawn as a clean geometric shape, retaining the sense of a threshold and gateway.

Result

A contemporary logomark that carries cultural weight, rooted in heritage, legible at any scale.

Responsive Odisha Design Week logo in full, reduced, and minimal lockups.
Responsive logo adapting across full, reduced, and minimal forms.

Color palette

Odisha Design Week color palette: Temple Red #E72737, Mahanadi Cyan #6AC4E7, Sand White #F0F0F0.

Typography

Primary typeface

Gilroy

Regular · Medium · Bold · Black

Gilroy type specimen and letterform treatment for Odisha Design Week.

The typeface is inspired by Pipli Applique Work, a traditional artwork of Odisha.

The design treatment mimics the traditional craft's overlapping form.

Type scale

Aa Display  ·  40px  ·  Black
Aa Heading  ·  24px  ·  Bold
Aa Body  ·  16px  ·  Regular
Aa Caption  ·  12px  ·  Medium
Odisha Design Week identity on merchandise and on-ground event engagement.

Outcome

The identity helped position Odisha Design Week as a culturally grounded, globally legible festival. Consistent expression across platforms strengthened engagement and sponsorship conversations.

The work was recognized with India's Best Design Award for Visual Identity Design 2023 (opens in new tab) for contribution to cultural branding and design excellence.