Dreams// Prejudices// Classics

It's every designer's dream to re-design for classics. We have our own thoughts, ideas, one can say dream versions of these covers. But at the same time these can be a challenge too. Because over the years there would be so many versions floating around that to come up with something different is a task. So is breaking other people's set idea about the cover, the book and its look. Because since the book is around for so long everyone from the reader to the sales-man would have their own visual in mind. their own perception their own prejudice. Doesn't that happen in life otherwise too? We expect certain things to be in a particular fashion and feel uncomfortable if they are not that way. Maybe... But as a designer I wish it was not that way.

This is my version of the George Orwell classics 'Animal Farm' and '1984'. Not ground breaking really but I guess not bad either.

Here is what I really wanted to do. (it's just at the idea stage and not the finished cover). But I guess the visuals overpowered the type and we went for the earlier version.

FUNNY BOY:

This is another classic by Shyam Selvadurai. It's his remarkable debut novel, a boy’s bittersweet passage to maturity and sexual awakening is set against escalating political tensions in Sri Lanka during the seven years leading up to the 1983 riots. Arjie Chelvaratnam is a Tamil boy growing up in an extended family in Colombo. It is through his eyes that the story unfolds and we meet a delightful, sometimes eccentric, cast of characters. Arjie’s journey from the luminous simplicity of childhood days into the more intricately shaded world of adults—with its secrets, its injustices, and its capacity for violence—is a memorable one, as time and time again the true longings of the human heart are held against the way things are.

This is my version of it. Which I enjoyed illustrating and had fun working on.

But this is the final version of the cover. Not bad but I loved the earlier one. Though what was interesting about the cover was getting the image. I had the most wonderful experience with the photographer Véronique Piaser (http://www.flickr.com/photos/piasermoyen)

She was so excited about the project since she had read the book and loved it and was super excited about her picture going on the cover.

Metro Reads III

These have been happening all the while and there are more too. these are like fillers or promos/ advertisements between a movie or a TV program. Fun yet sometimes painful.

Accidental Joys!

There are times when you see something and know that it is going to be fun and exciting! Something that you want to do/ work on/ buy/ get to know/ explore/ visit. But by the time you actually experience it you realize how wrong you were and the same thing has turned into a not so exciting thing or even a nightmare. While on the other hand there are things which you hardly expect anything out of but turn out to be fun and much better than the most appealing ones. Is it because one doesn't really expect much out of it that they eventually seem to be not so bad or even better? May be so ... Or is it because of what YOU MAKE OUT of it? I guess this happens to all in terms of work, personal life/ relations, places and so on.

These are covers for English-Hindi and Hindi-English Dictionary. Dictionary? Maybe not the most interesting brief that you are dyeing to take on. And the deadline was quiet short for the same. But I think I really enjoyed working on this because the my brief to myself was not to make it look like a dictionary for me. Why some thing that didn't excite me should look boring? And I had some fun with both the scripts. Thankfully it was appreciated and approved by all and went into print.

What do you expect when you hear a book about the life of Buddha? I thought I would be expected to look for a nice image/ painting of buddha and do a cover. But to my surprise and thanks to the editor and the author they didn't want to a buddha image on the cover. The Dhamma Man does not blindly revere the god but respectfully chronicles him, occasionally even critiquing Buddha. So I was free to ideate, illustrate and do something other than the buddha face on the cover. And I was very excited with this little surprise that came my way.

Freakonomics in Hindi

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner. The book has been described as melding pop culture with economics, but has also been decried as "amateur sociology. There are couple of versions of the cover for this book. But what I had to do was a cover for the hindi translation of the book.

Cover

This would be my first non-english book ever. It was quiet a challenge since though the book is the same as the English one, it is meant for a different audience who speak a different language and have a different sensibility. And to add to that like all our regional language books, there was no money that I could spend for an image or illustration. In spite of all the confusion that we had about what the cover should be and what text it should have and all that, I enjoyed working on it. May be not the best cover but just the sheer idea of working with a different script than Roman was great.

Cover Spread

Accident

It's been really long since I posted anything. Could be the Delhi winter I guess which makes you really slow and lazy. But today finally since the sun is out I thought I should post this sunny yellow cover :) which is a bit of an accident. Because when I got the brief for it, it sounded something that was quiet simple since it revolved round two interesting subjects: film and classical dance. But when I read a bit of the manuscript I started to realise that its not as simple as I thought it was. The stories were complex relationships and emotions and to get that across seemed a bit difficult. So I struggles for a few days and this is what came out eventually just out of some experiment that I was doing.

Maybe something as complex things need a simple solutions? At least this logic worked here and I am quiet happy with what result I got finally.

Cover

About the book:

This collection of eight short stories traces the life of a dancer through the years. In the seventies, she is sent, as a teenager, from Canada to study dance in India, away from the corrupting influences of the West. She finds, instead, a world of sensuality beyond anything previously experienced. She meets a movie star, goes on bike rides with boys she doesn’t know, and learns about the perils of falling in love from the plight of an older, revered man. Time and again, she comes back to India, as a wife and a mother, to rediscover the earthiness and passion of her youth.

Cover Spread

DELHI...Again

Been in the city for a year and a half. Still don't know really if I like her or no. Its a love hate relationship with her I guess. There are many things I like about her and many I just dislike. Nobody to blame for it but I guess its this one basic thing that makes me feel this way.
The 'INEQUALITY'. It's there almost everywhere, but it shows way too much here; almost in your face here like may other things here. But that's the way it is.

Front Cover
(Photograph 'Simple Man' by Jogeshwar Mishra)

Recently I did one more book on Delhi (after Trickster City http://eightandhalfhours.blogspot.com/2009/12/trickster-city.html). Its called 'Finding Delhi'. It is an anthology where people from different segments write about various subjects as diverse as public transport, the state of the Yamuna, women and the mega city, housing rights for the poor, recycling and recyclers, shopping malls and the officially sanctioned campaign against street vendors and the homeless ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Cover Spread

Flashback Continued...

This is a continuation of my post called 'Flashback'
http://eightandhalfhours.blogspot.com/2009/11/flashback_17.html

Some more covers in the same series... Absolutely love working on it.

Wind Flowers: Malayalam (Letter 'ma' in Malayalam)

A Place to Live: Tamil (Letter 'Ta' in Tamil)