Judging A Book

Book covers and jackets are now being designed specifically to give books that extra edge owing to the competitive market that they exist in. Recently,Oliver Munday,who runs a small design studio in New York City,added a new addition to his portfolio – book cover designing. His design for the book The Mirage,published by Harper Collins,was very well received. In a similar light,The Flame Alphabet designed by Peter Mendelsund was awarded for the visual brilliance it encapsulated.

In India,newer designs and ideas have emerged in this area. The Accidental Godman by Kishore Bhimani or the Inspired by Tagore book covers are remarkable examples of offbeat design work done recently in 2011. For many illustrators and designers,this is an area where work has begun very seriously in the last two-three years. Delhi-based illustrator and designer,Priya Kuriyan,says,“I think that the entire publishing industry has become highly competitive. Visibility is extremely important today. A cover needs to speak to the reader. Personally,I am biased towards books with better covers.” Kuriyan’s covers for children’s books like The Fried Frog and Terror on the Titanic have been refreshingly different with detailed graphic work based on the characters in the books.

Graphic designer Kriti Monga,who runs the studio Turmeric Design in Delhi,feels that there is still a lot that can be done to ensure that book covers are intelligently designed. “An eye catching book cover may not be well-designed. How a book looks also depends on where it sits in the store; the section it belongs to,” she says. As a studio,they don’t indulge in a lot of book designing assignments because it’s not very lucrative,she says. “One wishes there was more budget allotted to book designing and illustrations. Also,a lot of our designs are termed avant-garde and not considered as options for they seems too ‘intelligent’,” she adds. In fact,Monga,along with designer Ishan Khosla,designed the cover of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s biography,The Road to Pakistan. The final cover suggested was Jinnah’s portrait in a form of a map,which won a lot of acclaim in the international design circuit but was never used as the cover. “The publishers finally decided to use a simple picture of Jinnah. They thought this was too out of the box to be used,” she says.

While marketing decisions do impact the work of these designers,some publications are slowly opening up to extraordinary designs. Shares Anurima Roy,publicity officer,Hachette India,”There’s a big emphasis on good design and quality production which is frankly so wonderful when one wants to buy a book. We are trying to give a different look and appeal to a title.” Following this mantra is also Penguin India’s latest postcard collection. The pack has postcards that display designs of 100 titles that the publication has taken out. Their sale and popularity show that the look of a book surely holds an important position in the reader’s mind.