A Cover Story

With the advent of e-books,will book covers become a thing of the past and turn cover designers into an endangered species? In the city,the world of book cover designers is buzzing about the winds of change. “I hope I get to do a lot more than just the cover. Maybe multiple covers for each book?” says Kedarnath Gupta,an independent illustrator for Hachette India. Bena Sareen,42,Creative Designer,Penguin Books,India,adds that she is excited at the possibility of interaction that e-book covers will allow.

Most designers have chosen this field as a vocation. Shuka Jain,Art Director of Harper Collins,who ventured into book designing because it combined her two loves — art and books — too says that she is far from worried about the virtual encroachment. Sareen adds that she was an avid sociologist for many years before a chance meeting with a graphic design professor in the US convinced her that this was a profession she could pursue. Gupta,on the other hand,went from daytime copywriter who doubled as an illustrator at night for six years,to a full-time illustrator recently.

Designing for a book is not an exclusively creative process,as books are finally commercial products. Sareen,explains,“It involves an astute judgement of combining aesthetics and the commercial. It’s not a niche art form. It’s more challenging than that — you have to rise above your own understanding of a book,and learn to see it through the eyes of a larger audience. This includes the author,publisher,sales and marketing people and most importantly the reader.” Thus,book design traverses the difficult line between creativity and accessibility.

Sareen has designed Arundhati Roy’s Listening to Grasshoppers and The Shape of the Beast,Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (hardback) and Vikram Seth’s poetry series. She proudly reveals that Roy even has the minimalist and striking cover of The Shape of the Beast framed in her house. Jain has designed The Private Life of an Indian Prince by Mulk Raj Anand,The Sacred Grove by Daman Singh and The Other Woman by Monica Das among others. Gupta has the Hachette publication Rear Entrance by David Barun Kumar Thomas to his name.

How do the designers distill the contents of hundreds of pages into one cover? Some read the whole book while others rely on briefs. They share their ideas with the authors and editors before hitting the drawing board. They agree that a good designer requires an innate sense of aesthetics,sharpened by a commercial edge. Add a sense of exploration and experimentation,and you get a bestseller cover.

So,even as Kindle and Ipads make reading a virtual habit,book cover designers say they are here to stay.