Sharp criticisms welcomed the new ‘Awesome Assam’ logo which was unveiled by state tourism minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on September 4. Designed by a New Delhi-based agency – Square Communication – the new logo was bashed by the social media for being aesthetically poor and badly researched.

In a sharply written post, Guwahati-based Koushik Hazarika wrote on Facebook, “Is this the best that the #Assam Tourism guys could come up with? Amateurish logo and a pathetic title song. It’s embarrassing when you look at what the other states have. No imagination and no vision. The music is literally cringe inducing and sounds like the composer is stuck in the 70s. I hope they go for an immediate rectification. This is not #AweseomeAssam at all. Rather awful.” Here’s the video:

“For your kind information, this is not the official song of Assam Tourism. Some local event guys have done this song for the particular event of today,” clarified Manab Deka.

A section of Facebook users attributed the aesthetically poor design to the lack of understanding of the region. “We complain that the outside world don’t recognise us. Look how we take ourselves to the world. #Shame,” a user tweeted.

In a strongly written post addressed to the CEO at Square Communications – the agency which designed the logo – Pritisha Borthakur mentioned that because of her previous post criticizing the logo, she was blocked by Navneet Kapoor, CEO at Square Communications. “Mr Navneet Kapoor, CEO of Square Communications, you can block me for criticising the pathetic logo your team has made, but what do you think: you can snatch away my right to voice my opinion? I shall once again update the status I did few minutes ago. So, I was saying you guys are stupid! Draw a circle, insert the state animal, type the name of the brand, and you’re done; such an easy task is logo creation, right? Bloody wrong! What you have done is a piece of shit. How on earth this logo represents an “Awesome” Assam? You team not only lacks creativity but basic sense as well… look at the font! I wonder why did the tourism ministry of Assam not think of the state’s reputation that is at stake. We have much better talents in our state, don’t we?,” she wrote challenging the selection of the logo.

“A contest was also organised few years ago where our local talents were asked to design the Assam Tourism logo; unfortunately the results never came out. Just because the Square group is well-connected politically, does that mean an important project as such would be assigned to this no-brainer? Disgraceful,” Pritisha added.

One user shared a “logo idea” link (here) which resembled the logo released on September 4. So, Square Communication got the idea from this link? Or was it like Koushik Hazarika said: “Even if they use the Rhino, there is a better way to use the logo. This looks like – Google- search rhino- save pic- lasso tool- colour overlay.”

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