Not Child’s Play: The Craft of Designing a Book Cover

By Saket Suman | IANS Writing a full-length book, simply put, is not everybody’s cup of tea. It demands one creative person to sit down for hours, day after day, and allow his/her thoughts to play with words. But what about designing a book cover? That seems easy; after all, it is only a matter of putting the title of the book on some pictures. Or so we think. They say that the best of writers are those who are born with a knack for writing, but even the best of book designers, no matter how creative they are, have to train themselves in the art to thrive in the industry. Once inside the boiling pot of publishing, they are faced with unheard questions like what’s an A format or how do you calculate a spine? The entire process of book designing is a matter of patience. Or at least this is what Bhavi Mehta thought when she bagged a “six-month internship” at Penguin India. A fresh graduate from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), these six months shaped her career. Initially, she was only making back covers and spines for backlist titles, but after almost two weeks, she was assigned a title to design by herself. It was a hardback by Anita Nair titled “Goodnight and Godbless”. Here was her big opportunity; she had to be at her creative best. “The brief was straight; it had to look gifty. Not quite knowing how to make it look ‘gifty’, I started by reading the manuscript, a practice which I stick to till date. For me, reading the manuscript is the most crucial block in designing a jacket. As I read, I often make notes and doodles, trying to unlock motifs and images from the text. After a bunch of drafts, water colour and illustration attempts, it was decided to take the photographic route for the jacket,” Mehta told this correspondent about her first assignment. She said she is not “very proud” of her earlier works, but it was indeed a great learning process. Mehta was offered a full-time job at the end of her internship and she happily accepted it. Five years later, in 2013, she decided to pursue book designing independently and has since worked with Hachette Books, Harper Collins, Bloomsbury India and Amazon. Popular calligrapher and graphic designer Nikheel Aphale’s tryst with book covers also began on a somewhat similar note. After quitting his full-time job, Aphale wanted to pursue calligraphy and sent his calligraphy blog link to design studios, agencies, publication houses and others who could be interested in collaboration. “Penguin offered me a cover and they really liked what I did. I enjoyed the process and its outcome too. Since then it’s been an absolute delightful journey. Now I am designing covers for almost all leading publications in India,” said the calligrapher. But even so, “I am a graphic designer and calligrapher by profession and designing book covers was never a conscious decision”. Most designers agree that one does not need to take any specific training or course to become a successful book designer; it is more about one’s creativity and how well one manages to sharpen it. However, many designers that IANS spoke to feel that sometimes “degree and certificate” are given preference over “creativity and niche”. They suggested that having done a course in designing is always an added advantage and, besides, it adds some amount of exposure to one’s works. Aphale graduated in applied arts and then pursued a Masters in graphic design from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. “Designing book covers is like designing a poster or a packaging, basically communicating the essence or message of the book. Content and target audience always decide the look of the cover,” he said. Kunal Kundu, who has designed the covers for Krishna Udayashankar’s “The Aryavarta Chronicles” published by Hachette India, says that a combined course on Illustration and Graphic Design would certainly help. But inborn creativity is that one thing, according to Kundu, which will do the magic. “Schools are good for honing your skills, but being visually creative is a prerequisite of a great book cover designer or for any art for that matter,” Kundu said. As from the publishers’ perspective, an ideal book designer doesn’t really need to have a particular degree as such, but he/she should have an ideal body of work to impress the editors. What matters is how he deals with the subject when it is presented to him. Publishers said that the designers have the daunting task of listening to the author and the assigned editor -- two people who are not always on the same page -- and then use his or her creativity to maintain a balance between what attracts the reader and what works best in accordance with the content of the book. Unsung heroes of the publishing industry Of all the aspects that go into shaping the fate of any given book, its cover, apart from the merit of the title, is perhaps the most significant. In today’s times, when the calibre of a novel is based on its Instagram likes and Facebook shares, “do not judge a book by its cover” is nearly lost in time. And yet, the faces behind these covers are the real unsung heroes of the publishing industry. How are the book covers created and who creates them? The process usually begins with a briefing. The editor-in-charge, after consultations with the author, presents a few ideas to the art director. It consists of book dimensions, a synopsis of the book, the editor’s/sales inputs, author’s suggestions and sometimes references to other covers in the same category. The brief is sent to the art director, who then assigns it to a designer. A couple of years ago, for example, Penguin India was planning to rejacket all seven books in the Vikram Seth’s poetry series. And the designer handling the project was Bhavi Mehta. She started out by taking some time off and immersing herself in the books. As Mehta read, she knew exactly what the books demanded -- “something sublime that rang true to his writing” -- and thus came up with a few probable sketches in her mind. “My initial idea was to get a new illustrator on board for every book and commission an illustration for each of the seven books. But due to shortage of time and budget I decided to go with sourcing the right illustration for each book. There was one catch (there almost always is): To find seven illustrations by seven artists that were different and yet came together as one cohesive whole. “After browsing through hundreds of illustrations by artists all over the world and a couple of weeks’ hard work, the final seven were selected and approved by everyone. Next was the Herculean task of clearing permissions for all, which took another two weeks. This was one of the most gratifying projects I have been lucky to be a part of,” Mehta, well known in the book designing world, had earlier told this correspondent. But it is not just as easy as it seems. What if the proposed covers were rejected by the author, editor-in-charge or anybody up the hierarchy? At the end of the day, a designer’s job is to serve the author’s body of work in the best possible manner. However, it’s equally important for a designer to not just blindly do as they are told and find the right balance on what works for the book and what looks good. There are some books for which there have been as many as 30-40 drafts and yet the final cover ended up being the first draft that the designer made. When all drafts for a particular jacket are “killed” at the editorial meeting, the designer goes back to the drawing board and starts afresh. Sometimes the process is tiring and involves drafts after drafts, until they reach a cover, which, if not liked, is at least approved by all. “You never know which draft might be the final one and you try and make each draft your best one. It can get frustrating when you feel that you’ve done the right work and then it gets rejected, not because it’s a bad design but on a mere whim. Such covers that may never see the light of day, usually end up in a folder on my computer called Morgue,” Mehta explained. Once the draft is approved, it is fine-tuned and sent to the author for final approval. The author’s suggestions, in most instances, are accommodated. The jacket is then art-worked, which means it is laid out with proper dimensions/margins/bleeds and the text is flown in. Once the cover is fully laid out, it goes through rounds of copy checking by the editor-in-charge till the text is all in place. After it is copy-checked, a jacket is ready to be sent for production. At this stage the designer and the production team try and decide on post-production of the book in terms of paper to be used, any effects such as emboss/UV and the final finish of the cover. All of this, of course, is subject to the budget of a book. After this, the cover finally goes to print. A few weeks later, you enter a bookshop and are immediately attracted to a particular book. You know it but you don’t say out loud, that it is often just the book cover that propels you to pick one particular book from a shelf of hundreds of books in the bookshop that houses several such shelves. Coincidentally, the long list of the Third Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize will be announced at the Oxford Bookstore here on Thursday followed by a panel discussion on “Visual Language: Judging Books by the Covers”. (Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)