Asian Development Bank: 25th Anniversary Report

We designed a brochure celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Asian Development Bank. The brochure was released by Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee on October 17, 2011. The cover painting, done by renowned Gond artist, Bhajju Shyam, is based on the concept of the Tree of Life. We decided to work with Gond artists because their work is rooted in nature and also because they come from far flung villages in Madhya Pradesh. Thus, the cover is a metaphor for sustainable and inclusive growth that is a hallmark of the way ADB has worked on development projects throughout India in the past quarter century.

The Tree of Life shows how starting with a source or capital (represented by the animals) enables you to create various infrastructure (represented by the branches) that ultimately impacts the lives of various sections of society (represented by the people at the furthest tips of the branches). The 5 animals represent the ADB's investment in the 5 sectors — Cow for Agriculture; Tiger for Energy; Horse for Urban; Elephant for Transport and Bull for Finance. The 5 main branches of the tree represent the 5 sectors ofdevelopment focus for ADB. Thus the Agriculture sector is made up of canals and fields; Energy is made up of wires; Urban is made up of pipes; Transport is made up of roads and Finance is made up of coins.

As one goes higher up the tree — a metaphor for going further in time — one notices the impact of the infrastructure on the common person — the project bears fruit. Thus the branch of Agriculture has farmers tilling the land; the Energy branch has power cables; Urban has a metro train and skyscrapers; Transport has highway traffic and Finance depicts banks enabling small entrepreneurs to succeed.