Patna designer behind Election Commission logo

Patna designer behind Election Commission

PATNA: Very few of us are aware that the present registered logo of Election Commission of India is designed by Patna’s own Amitabh Pandey who is currently a communication design consultant with Unicef office here. Pandey’s ECI logo was selected during his tenure as the faculty member in communication design of the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, in 2000. Talking to TOI, Pandey said the selected ECI logo dynamically symbolises the masses without barriers of caste, education and economics. “The enclosed stable form in the logo represents the strength and foolproof democratice electoral process, without actually focussing on the mechanisms,” he said. Pandey, who served as faculty in communication design at NID in 2000-2001, said the image which has the strongest association with election and related activities is the ballot box. Another image, which is easily associated with the process of voting, is the voter’s ink mark on the finger, he said. Pandey, a graphic designer of repute, also designed other prestigious logos for the government of Jharkhand, regional television channel for West Bengal, Gujarat, Punjab and Maharashtra and the logo of grievances redressal authority, Gujarat. Pandey said use of colour plays a very significant role in building association in people’s mind. Symbols of Red Cross and family planning were very easily recognised. “We had organized a series of meetings with the cross-section of people living in North East, south and northern regions, to seek their opinion and feedback about it,” he said. He said logo or symbol is an indispensable investment in the organisation’s future and like any investment it required careful management to grow in value.