Ooty

Why this icon The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (UNESCO) climbs to Ooty. Source: whc.unesco.org

Zostel

The story

Morning in the Nilgiris: across a valley of mist the little toy train climbs over a stone bridge, its engine at the downhill end pushing and puffing, while a traveller on the path at the edge of the tea sips a glass of Nilgiri tea and a gaur grazes up the slope.

Why this picture

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (UNESCO) climbs from Mettupalayam to Ooty in 46 km of curves, tunnels and some 250 bridges; on the steep rack section its steam engine is coupled at the downhill end and pushes its few small coaches up through tea gardens and blue gums, mist lying in the valleys below the ridges. Gaur graze the tea estates.

The sky wears Kolam, from Tamil Nadu and the south.

The motion

The steam puffs in turn; the blue gums sway; birds cross the sky; a gaur grazes in the tea; the sun's rays turn. A 16-second loop.

Colour

Mustard Leaf #E2E418

Jade #04B495

Paddy Green #B2D234

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

Another moment in Ooty

A second scene: another true moment at Ooty, 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 golden late afternoon at a Toda mund on the downs above Ooty: a Toda hut, its half-barrel thatch over a tiny door, stands on the grass at the shola's edge, a shawl of Toda embroidery airs on a pole beside it, the mund's buffaloes graze the downs, and a traveller stops on the grass to take a picture as the Nilgiris roll away under a low sun.

Why this moment

The Toda, the pastoral people of the Nilgiri plateau, live in munds, hamlets of a few huts on the grassy downs at the edge of the shola, near Ooty's Botanical Garden among other places. Their huts are half-barrel vaults of bamboo and thatch with a tiny front door; their life turns on their buffalo herds, which graze the downs; and Toda women embroider the red-and-black pukhoor shawl on white cloth. The cool, clear season of October to March gives the low gold light of late afternoon.

The motion

Clouds cross the sky; the sun's rays turn; the buffaloes graze and the far ones wander; the shawl stirs on its pole; the blue gums sway. 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.

Ooty in symbols

Beside its icon, the things that are Ooty, 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 Toda dogleMonument
The Toda dogle: the half-barrel home of the Nilgiris' Toda people — bamboo arched and tied with rattan, thatched, about 3 m high, 5.5 m long and 2.7 m wide, its front of dressed granite with a door about 90 cm square that you crawl through, the front painted with Toda art.
SVG Grey SVG PNG
Toda embroidery (a puthukuli shawl)Of the place
Toda embroidery, the pukhoor of the Nilgiris (GI, 2013): red and black thread on off-white cotton woven with red and black bands, worked between the bands by counting the threads — the puthukuli shawl, its triangles in boxes, its buffalo horns and its 'rabbit ears' along the border.
SVG Grey SVG PNG
Ooty varkey and a glass of teaOf the place
Ooty varkey (GI, 2022–23): the Nilgiris' flaky, layered baked biscuit of wheat flour, ghee and mava, made by some ninety bakers and eaten with a hot glass of Nilgiri tea.
SVG Grey SVG PNG

Also drawn for Ooty 13

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

Say hello to Ooty's Zobus

Zobu in Ooty'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

Their faces, poses and moves 15

Ooty's Zobus from the rig: a face for a profile picture, a pose for a story, a move as a still; each opens its file. Every Zobu in motion

Faces 10

Show all 10

Poses 5

The animals of Ooty

Animals and birds the research behind Ooty's picture names, drawn in the Brand Manual's animal style, in colour and in the city grey. All the animals of India

GaurBos gaurus
SVG Grey SVG PNG
Nilgiri langurSemnopithecus johnii
SVG Grey SVG PNG
Water buffalo (domestic)Bubalus bubalis
SVG Grey SVG PNG

The kit

Everything Ooty 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 map, its city symbols and its Zobus — every file ready to download.

51 files in one zip, the cover, its second scene, its symbols, its Zobus and its city map included

Profile

Ooty’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 Ooty’s own — for a grid, a story, a sticker.

SVG PNG

Icon

An object: flat landscape colours. Transparent; the mono takes any one colour.

SVG PNG Mono SVG

Loop

A breeze sways the field stalks at its base. 7.2 s, seamless.

Animated SVG Lottie JSON

Motion

The symbol becomes Ooty and turns back — a Lottie loop for stories, the app and the web.

Lottie JSON

Display picture

Circle-safe: the colour, the icon and the name — for chats, socials and the app.

SVG PNG

Lockup

The horizontal lockup, with Ooty under the wordmark — for signage, email and merch.

SVG

City symbols

Ooty’s symbols, each in colour and in the city grey, as SVG and PNG — in the zip’s symbols folder.

See them with their files

Zobus

Ooty’s Zobu pair, still and alive (idle, hello, hop), waving still and as a face (a profile picture) — in the zip’s zobus folder.

Female SVG Male SVG

Also made for Ooty 4

The rest of what the library holds for Ooty: the pattern of its region, the card its links share, each opening its own file or gallery.

The map we made for Ooty

48 things to do around our two Zostels, two walks and 17 quests, on one A2 sheet that folds to A6 — a map made for travellers. Print it, fold it, go.

Download for print (PDF)Download the map (PNG)Download the guide (PNG)

A2, both sides, folds to A6. For print: double-sided, flipping on the long edge; at a print shop, the PDF at actual size.

ClickTap the sheet to zoom in

The mapClick to zoom in

The guideClick to zoom in

Its pieces on the map 83

Every spot on the Ooty sheet, by what you go there for, each drawn with a drawing of the library. A piece opens its drawing with its files; the line under it names the other places that drawing belongs to.