Pondicherry

Why this icon The Matrimandir at the centre of Auroville. Source: en.wikipedia.org

Zostel

The story

A winter morning at Auroville: a traveller cycles the garden path up to the Matrimandir, its golden discs flashing in the low sun, visitors small on the lawns at its foot and the great banyan's aerial roots hanging beside it.

Why this picture

The Matrimandir rises at the centre of Auroville, 10 km north of Pondicherry: a great flattened sphere clad in 1,415 gold-leaf discs that flash in the sun, set in lawns and mounds in the middle of twelve gardens, with the century-old banyan, 50 m across, beside it. Visitors see it from the viewing point, many of them walking or cycling in through the re-grown forest; palmyra palms, Tamil Nadu's state tree, stand over the fields, and koels call from the treetops.

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

The motion

The sphere's discs flash one by one; the gardens' flowers twinkle; the koel flies; the banyan and the palms sway; the sun's rays turn. A 16-second loop.

Colour

Sky #9CDCF9

Lagoon #34C2D7

Ocean #0072BC

Pondicherry takes Ocean #0072BC, one of the three Waters colours — with its icon in white on it.

Another moment in Pondicherry

A second scene: another true moment at Pondicherry, 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

Sunrise on the Promenade: the sun comes up out of the Bay of Bengal, the old lighthouse stands white on Goubert Avenue beside a yellow White Town house, waves break on the seawall's boulders and a fishing boat works along the shore, while a traveller walks the Promenade on the morning walk and a palm squirrel runs along the parapet.

Why this moment

Pondicherry's Promenade runs 1.5 km along the Bay of Bengal on Goubert Avenue, facing due east, so the sun rises out of the sea in front of it; its beach has gone and the shore is a seawall of granite boulders where the waves break. Mornings there belong to walkers, as traffic is kept off the avenue. The old lighthouse of 1836 stands on the avenue among the White Town's yellow colonial houses with their bougainvillea. The Indian palm squirrel is Puducherry's state animal; fishing boats put out from the fishing villages along the coast at first light.

The motion

The sea's rows run in and the surf breaks on the boulders; the sun's fan of rays breathes; a flock of crows crosses the sky; a fishing boat rows along the shore and back; the palms sway; the squirrel runs along the parapet; the traveller walks. 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.

Pondicherry in symbols

Beside its icon, the things that are Pondicherry, 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

The old lighthouseMonument
Pondicherry's old lighthouse (1836) on the Promenade: a round tower 29 m high on a square base, white with a green dome, its light first six oil lamps.
SVG Grey SVG PNG
A White Town houseOf the place
White Town, Pondicherry's French Quarter: a grid of straight streets of French colonial houses, their tall shuttered windows and gateways behind garden walls spilling bougainvillea.
SVG Grey SVG PNG
Auroville's banyanOf the place
The great banyan at the centre of Auroville, just west of the Matrimandir: more than a hundred years old, 50 m across, its aerial roots let down into the ground; the only tree on the bare plateau when the city began.
SVG Grey SVG PNG

Also drawn for Pondicherry 1

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

Asian koel

Say hello to Pondicherry's Zobus

Zobu in Pondicherry'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 28

Pondicherry'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

The animals of Pondicherry

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

Indian palm squirrelFunambulus palmarum
SVG Grey SVG PNG
Asian koelEudynamys scolopaceus
SVG Grey SVG PNG

The kit

Everything Pondicherry 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.

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

Profile

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

SVG PNG