Kotkhai

Why this icon The pagoda-roofed Kotkhai palace on its cliff above the Giri. Source: en.wikipedia.org

Zostel Homes

The story

Golden hour at Kotkhai: the old palace of stone, timber and slate stands on its cliff above the Giri, dark against the low sun, the terraced orchards around it hung with red apples and the harvest in crates, and a traveller on the terraces across the gorge shades their eyes to look.

Why this picture

Kotkhai means 'the palace on the cliff': the Rana's palace, a long building of deodar timber and slate with pagoda roofs on three storeys of heavy stone masonry, stands at the edge of a hilltop cliff with the Giri flowing below. The valley is one of Himachal's great apple belts, red with fruit after the monsoon. Himalayan griffons ride the thermals over the gorge.

The sky wears Gond scales, from Madhya Pradesh.

The motion

The sun's rays turn; the Giri's water lines run across the whole gorge; a griffon circles over the far hill; the apple trees sway. A 16-second loop.

Colour

Mustard Leaf #E2E418

Jade #04B495

Paddy Green #B2D234

Kotkhai takes Jade #04B495, one of the three Fields colours — with its icon in Steel Grey on it.

Another moment in Kotkhai

A second scene: another true moment at Kotkhai, drawn in the graphic vocabulary with the animals and city symbols that belong there. Wide for screens, tall for a phone held upright.

The story

A September dusk in the courtyard of Kotkhai's old palace: a traveller stands under its carved timber balcony and points up at the lamplit arched windows, a rhesus macaque peers down from the balcony's beam, and the moon rises over the Giri valley as the town's lamps come on.

Why this moment

Kotkhai ('kot', a king's palace; 'khai', a ditch) is known for the Ranas' old palace-fort in Tibetan and pagoda style on its cliff above the Giri: stone storeys under a projecting timber balcony of carved arched windows and a slate eave hung with a fringe. Rhesus macaques roam the roofs of the Shimla hills.

The motion

A flock heading home crosses the sky; a cloud bank drifts across the moon and back; the moon's rings turn; the town's lamps come on; the deodars sway; the macaque on the beam dips its head to peer down. A 16-second loop.

In the picture

Its files

wide: wide second scene, SVG wide second scene, Animated SVG wide second scene, PNG
tall: tall second scene, SVG tall second scene, Animated SVG tall second scene, PNG

Also in the kit's zip, in its own folder.

Kotkhai in symbols

Beside its icon, the things that are Kotkhai, drawn in the Brand Manual's city language: a monument in the city grey with its openings cut, the things of the place in flat landscape colours. Each comes in colour and in the city grey. Every place's symbols

A carved wooden balconyMonument
Kotkhai's palace ('Bussa', the Rana's, Tibetan and pagoda style) is known for its carved woodwork: a projecting timber balcony under a slate eave, its arcade, carved brackets and hanging wooden fringe.
SVG Grey SVG PNG
Apples packed in a cartonOf the place
Kotkhai, one of Himachal's largest apple valleys: at harvest its apples are graded and packed into cartons, layer on layer in moulded trays, for the mandis below.
SVG Grey SVG PNG

Also drawn for Kotkhai 7

Detailed icons from the library that name Kotkhai among their places: one drawing, on the page of every place it belongs to. Those drawn for Kotkhai alone come first. Every detailed icon

Say hello to Kotkhai's Zobus

Zobu in Kotkhai's own dress, on the palette. Hover or tap one and it waves. Each comes still and alive — idle, hello and hop — for stickers, stories and the app.

Every destination's Zobus →

Female
Still Idle Hello Hop Face Wave
Male
Still Idle Hello Hop Face Wave

The kit

Everything Kotkhai needs: its profile, its cover, wide and tall, its icon, tile, display picture and lockup, its loop and the symbol becoming it, its second scene, its city symbols and its Zobus — every file ready to download.

44 files in one zip, the cover, its second scene, its symbols and its Zobus included

Profile

Kotkhai’s page as a story, 1080 × 1920: its cover, its tile, its name, its line and its verbs — for stories, status and a phone’s lock screen.

SVGOther formats

Cover, wide

1600 × 900, for screens: a page’s top, a slide, a share card. The still is the loop’s first frame. The animated SVG loops in 16 s; where it shouldn’t move, use the still.

SVG Animated SVG PNG

Cover, tall

900 × 1600, composed for a phone held upright: stories, reels, a lock screen. The animated SVG loops in 16 s; where it shouldn’t move, use the still.

SVG Animated SVG PNG

Tile

The icon in one colour on Kotkhai’s own — for a grid, a story, a sticker.

SVG PNG