can't design

January 2012

2012-01-31T03:36:00.000-08:00

Jan 2012

2012-01-19T02:41:00.001-08:00

December 2011

2012-01-19T02:39:00.000-08:00

November 2011

2011-11-15T03:38:00.001-08:00

Sunanda Sikdar’s beautiful and moving memoir A Life Long Ago (in Bengali, Dayamoyeer Katha) was awarded the Lila Puraskar by Calcutta University in 2008, and the Ananda Puraskar in 2010.

I tried my best to give the right face to this classic.

September 2011

2011-09-27T22:18:00.001-07:00

The book has 10 stories each of which delve into the mind of a child, from age 12 onwards. There are issues here about problematic behaviour, parental loss, physical abuse, dealing with peers, religion etc. The book is a portrait of the modern child/teenager trying to deal with life as it comes to him/her. Some stories are full of hope, others are sad. All of them are about the love and understanding a child needs and craves.

The title is handwritten by Nikheel Aphale.

April 2011

2011-07-27T23:38:00.000-07:00

A biography

April 2011

2011-05-26T00:55:00.001-07:00

A rejected design. After visualizing the cover based on the initial brief, the author changed his mind and title of the book.

February 2011

2011-02-03T02:48:00.000-08:00

Absolutely enjoyed doing this cover!

January 2011

2011-01-13T00:08:00.001-08:00

Hailed as shahenshah-e-mausiqi (emperor of music) and acclaimed as the ghazal king, K.L. Saigal became a legend in his own lifetime. His music continues to delight music lovers the world over, and his melodies are now a part of our musical heritage. The first ever singer–superstar of Indian cinema is also now a subject of study by several scholars.

The author presents multiple facets of K.L.Saigal—singer, actor, poet, composer and person—beginning with Puran Bhakat in 1933 up to his premature death at the age of forty-three. Interspersed with historic photographs, K.L. Saigal provides a fascinating portrayal of the phenomena that was Saigal.

I chose a gold foiled classical look for the cover evoking the retro look with the type matching to the kinds we used to have in LP record covers!

November 2010

2010-12-15T02:25:00.000-08:00

Enjoyed keeping it simple. Unfortunately, neither heard from the photographer nor got the permission to buy this image. This is just a mock-up.

Novemver 2010

2010-12-09T22:51:00.000-08:00

July 2010

2010-06-30T23:26:00.000-07:00

When I first read the manuscript, I was clueless how to present this classic obscure fantasy tale into pictures for today's generation kids. I kept revisiting my sketchbook and scrapped off all my doodles till I felt I have developed a suitable style that can take the text to a different level for the young reader.

May 2010

2010-06-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

Miniature figure paintings of Dara Shikhon and Aurangzeb are by my painter friend, KP Sudesh

March 2010

2010-03-19T02:12:00.000-07:00

Gold foiling printing on coloured background. Grt collection of stories for all....

March 2010

2010-03-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

October 2009

2009-10-30T01:57:00.001-07:00

October 2009

2009-10-27T03:26:00.001-07:00

Sacred Animals of India draws on the ancient religious traditions of India—Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism—to explore the customs and practices that engendered the veneration of animals in India.

August 2009

2009-08-24T23:56:00.000-07:00

A real pleasure to experience designing for the Penguin Classics Hardbacks!

April 2009

2009-06-15T00:51:00.001-07:00

February 2009

2009-06-15T00:40:00.000-07:00

This was a project which I had to do with 4 school children. It took us many interactions to arrive at a level of understanding between my requirement and what the class VIII students can execute. The best outcome of the exercise went on the cover and rest are inside the book. It was a memorable experience... kiddos to the little angels!

June 2009

2009-06-12T02:36:00.000-07:00

Anything for HIM! Sigh!! lolz

April 2009

2009-06-12T02:23:00.000-07:00

A psychiatrist explores the value of Indian spiritual traditions. This manuscript is an account of his personal exploration of the effects of Yoga, and of his interviews with sadhus to explore a possible connection between mental illness and asceticism.

Got started with tantric art for a cover visual. In the process I came across amazing art. But nothing as powerful as this shot by a Hyderabad based photographer, Sukanto Debnath. I chose to take a closer crop of the image, his intriguing face— look in the eyes, the grey ash and the yellow-red markings. Not to miss the hair that adds to the strength of his facial expression.

March 2009

2009-06-12T02:13:00.001-07:00

Attempted Sci-fi genre for first time. Though not my subject of interest but I still wanted to stretch my limits. After trials and errors, ...finally met up the expectations

December 2008

2008-12-05T02:00:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed working on this cover.

November 2008

2008-11-19T00:32:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed doing them, simply because it was different from whatever else I have done so far...

August 2008

2008-09-10T01:47:00.001-07:00

A design that came close to my heart, but didn't get an approval!

May 2008

2008-05-12T00:06:00.000-07:00

Didn't get approved.

April 2008

2008-05-06T02:44:00.000-07:00

I am a fan of Guru Dutt, and especially of this stunning shot from Mr and Mrs '55 (Film). My patience paid off when I tracked down this image. The printing is in gold, b/w and sepia.

March 2008

2008-04-21T03:20:00.001-07:00

January 2008

2008-01-16T02:14:00.001-08:00

About the book: Rahul, a student of anthropology in a small university town in Madhya Pradesh, falls in love with Anjali, the girl with the golden parasol. In an effort to be closer to her he transfers to the Hindi department but gets caught in a growing nexus of power and casteism that is taking over the university. Can Rahul and Anjali’s love survive the violence that surrounds them? Or will society gain victory, thus re-enforcing its order?

Illustration comes very naturally to me.....and here I was briefed to go impressionistic. Just comment how do you like the outcome

December 2007

2008-01-08T03:19:00.000-08:00

A biographical cover.... I will give all the compliments to the anonymous painter who did the portrait.

2002-2007

2007-10-11T05:31:00.001-07:00

A Puffin book that took 5 years in the making. I had the rare opportunity to work with one of the most talented, meticulous and intelligent illustrators in India, Atanu Roy. He gave his best to this book. For 5 years he kept the style and the research consistent. I designed the cover and inside layout of the book. The cover has a silver metallic ground which I could not get in the scanning, but the effect has just made the cover 'MAGICAL'! Printed in Singapore. Been a learning experience. Its a collectors ITEM.... do get a copy for YOURSELF!

September 2007

2007-10-11T04:52:00.000-07:00

A quite book. Love the water colour by a freelancer. I settled for a minimilistic graphic input.

May 2007

2007-05-31T00:14:00.001-07:00

This is my first complete book that I illustrated and designed in 2007 (copyright:Penguin Books India). The stories are really well written. They brought the 8 year old in me. By far this work falls in the category of my best works which I enjoyed throughly. Some assorted internal illustrations are uploaded in www.joy-of-expressing.blogspot.com

February 2007

2007-02-23T03:04:00.000-08:00

This year '1857' will celebrate its 150th anniversary. I got to design and enjoy one jacket. I build it up like a painting from start. American abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pullock was once asked, "When do you realise that you have finished with a painting?" He replied in return, " When do you realise that you have finished making love?"

February 2007

2007-02-23T01:47:00.000-08:00

I just loved the decorative frame on the front cover and its off centre red ground. A cover I got right at the first attempt. (whats wrong with me???!!!)

About the book: A fictional narrative (in various voices), set in the time of the British Empire in India. It works as a satire on the sexual follies, quirks, and diseases of various important personages. Also contains some grim accounts of sexual violence. A kind of ‘what lies beneath’ expose of sexual hypocrisy and aberrations.

January 2007

2007-02-23T01:24:00.000-08:00

A cover I was most inspired to do after reading the title story. The synopsis: ‘Some women should never wear clothes—clothes that hide the shape and colour of their flesh and skin…’

In the title story, Robie is looking for a model for a nude he has to paint, when he is introduced to Mrs Oliver by his friend Turner. When he sees her, he is disappointed at how utterly unsuited she is as a subject for the kind of painting he has in mind. However, when she poses, he realizes that some women look best in the nude.

The cover was rejected (to my deep disappointment) as someone was of the opinion that it was utterly vulgar. (!!!???what?)

January 2007

2007-02-23T00:58:00.000-08:00

Outburst of colours! Thats all I can say...

December 2006

2007-02-23T00:41:00.000-08:00

I was given a series of covers to design. These were new covers designed for existing books. The author being a prominent one, I had to be very particular about the images I choose. A correct image was half the battle won.

2006 October

2007-02-23T00:28:00.000-08:00

2006

2007-02-23T00:26:00.000-08:00

April 2006

2006-04-19T05:25:00.000-07:00

This was yet another interesting cover that fell on my lap this year. I have posted the UK cover published by Orion Books(top) and the one designed by me for Penguin India(bottom). I made two options and the green one was finalised. It took me a while to choose the right image with the right expression of a black boy. We chose the boy for two reasons. One, to be different from the UK cover, and second, (because the experiment ends in a manner no one had expected) the boy at the end of the novel.........(own the book and find out for yourself!)

Milena Beyene, the photographer of the boy image, is from Eritrea, in East Africa. She shot this image in Nigeria where the little fellow lives on a very small island of Lagos. He belongs to a fisher family and Milena detemined to find the family and hand them over the money she earns from Penguin. (Hope she finds the boy....)

February 2006

2006-02-07T18:00:00.000-08:00

This book is making waves everywhere. In this book, there is a hint of magic realism throughout the novella, but it is never overdone. So it was best to have a stylized yet ‘realistic’ cover with rich but not loud colours. I have posted both the covers, the one designed in US(bottom) and the one I designed(top).

January 2006

2006-01-19T16:40:00.000-08:00

My latest design. Manjit Bawa(self-portrait on cover) is one of India's well known contemporary painters. At the moment, unfortunately, the aged gentleman is in coma due to a bad stroke. I sincerely wish he recovers back and continues his meaningful work. I chose to have the cover based on his distinct colour palette. His works are often very vivacious yet very quite in nature. I really admire his ability to arrive at a flat application of oils/acrylics. And continuing like this year after year with different subjects. The two options were shown to the author and she showed it around to other painters. They felt there should be no text running across the portrait. But anywhere else was also not working. Finally we arrived at an option with minimum lines in the centre which was liked by all.

December 2005

2006-01-19T14:45:00.000-08:00

An all-time favourite author with Penguin India( and other publishers). A simple attempt to a Bond cover. The photograph is taken by Bond and I used his original signature(which I picked up from the back of an envelop addressed to an editor). This is a series look and I guess we will used Bonds' photographs for all. All retro images.

December 2005

2005-12-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

My latest design

November 2005

2005-11-25T13:30:00.000-08:00

Painter Amrita Sher-Gill's short life is really enthralling for me. While still a student in Paris, she wrote in a letter how she ‘began to be haunted by an intense longing to return to India, feeling in some strange way that there lay my destiny as a painter’. And, upon her return to India late the following year, she lost no time in getting to grips with her ambition. In Paris she may have been thirty years behind the European art movements and current trends but she was certainly as many years ahead of her time in India in the mid-1930s – only in the 1960s did Indian artists begin to display her kind of self-assurance and purpose. She is one of my favourites. What an achievement in such a short life of 28 years!

November 2005

2005-11-22T09:25:00.000-08:00

The medium I used is water colour and pencil. I quite like the expression on the face. Initially the cub was at a distance in the previous options but I think a close up worked better. The spine in yellow is disturbing but its an inhouse style for the Puffin imprint.

May 2005

2005-11-21T19:30:00.000-08:00

As an usual habit, I concieve a concept, sketch a composition, make the drafts and decide the colour scheme and fonts—all in my mind! It was the same for this cover as well. It took me a single day to execute my vision. When I look at the cover today, I feel the title should have been 2 points smaller.

November 2005

2005-11-21T19:10:00.000-08:00

The cover brief for this book was very challenging. The books boldly provocative saga is a triumph of poetic imagination that relentlessly probes our underlying assumptions of history and truth, religion and nationalism. The nature of the context was very abstract. One stunning bold image, doing justice to the book, was what we required for the cover. The author agreed with me that the image on the cover was just right! A simple straight typo was all it required to make a balanced design.

June 2005

2005-11-21T13:45:00.000-08:00

This book is an unsparing examination of marriage, displacement and the many small compromises that make up life, The Girls from Overseas shines with wit and intelligence. I tried to capture the same in a new style in water colour and pencil. I am sure the same would have looked better in tempera.

February 2005

2005-11-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

This one is very close to my heart. I was happy that I got exactly the right image to express what the book was all about.

December 2004

2005-11-21T00:30:00.000-08:00

The medium I used for the illustration is water colour on gold stained handmade paper. I tampered the illustration quite a few times till the required look was achieved. The matt gold panel below really hightened the illustration.

September 2004

2005-11-18T14:20:00.000-08:00

I had to choose an illustration in black and white, from inside the book, to design the cover. I tweaked the illustration to make it look four colour. The ink-pot, the pencil and pen along with the two cows in brown are all separate pieces put together. Its a book about few boys spending their holidays together.

September 2004

2005-11-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

I worked closely with Priyanka Gandhi (daughter of Sonia Gandhi) on this cover concept. Doing portraits is always a challenge. But I am quite happy with the result of these ones. The medium used is acrylics. An original letter by Nehru has been used as a water-mark in the background. Nehru was in prison when he thought of educating his 9 year old, in a hillstation at that time, through letters. Its a classic and hope the cover does justice to it. I suppose the best compliment I recieved was when Priyanka asked me for the original illustration of young Indira with my signature on it.

July 2003

2005-11-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

I really had fun doing these covers. There are a total of 12 covers in this detective series by Ray. They were published as a collection under the Penguin imprint for adults. Later we decided to do them for kids with each adventure having its own respectve cover. Previous Ray covers were all illustrated but this time we chose to shoot a certain climax from each story. We went hunting for all kinds of props required for our shots. We had to be very true to the scene in the book as kids, who read adventure, are very sharp. I and my photographer had different ideas but eventually the whole experience was good. I wish I can have many such opportunities.

April 2003

2005-11-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

The deadline for this cover was like...yesterday! I had to read, make drafts, illustrate and design in exactly 2 days. The book is about the life of a woman who ends up dying very tragically...takes a boat in the middle of the night and drowns herself.

January 2003

2005-11-18T09:20:00.000-08:00

This is my first quiz book that I designed for kids. I had to give it a series look and with each volume the colour of 'QUIZ' and images changed. The background is metalic silver. My challenge was to give it a bright, chirpy look yet not too kiddish. The book was meant for readers aged 9-14.

January 2004

2005-11-17T18:25:00.000-08:00

When I was given this title to design, I was quite excited to do it because of its erotic context. The woman mating with the panther kind of stuff....an interesting concept to illustrate. I was getting a bit tired of making cute stuff for kids. I finally came up with a sensuous cover which eventually took a different shape....(sigh!!) I am posting three different stages of the design. Finally the author went for the orange cover with only the panther...sob!