If you happen to be a fan of the iconic filmmaker Satyajit Ray, you might know that during 1943, he worked at DJ Keymer, a British-run advertising agency, as a junior visualiser with a salary of Rs 80 per month. He was also employed by a publishing house that created cover designs for books. It is said that Ray transformed notions of book design in India.
Entirely discarding the formality of the British type of book jacket design, he was the first Indian artist to have introduced to jacket design, a style of brushing that was completely Indian. He also produced posters, booklets, hoardings and set-costume-prop design for his own films. An ongoing exhibition as part of the Satyajit Ray Festival by the Directorate of Film Festivals and Satyajit Ray Society in association with lightcube Film Society at Siri Fort offers glimpses of legendary filmmaker’s works of art.
This includes posters, photographs and cover designs. Also on display are reproductions of Ray’s many artistic works preserved in original form at the Satyajit Ray Society archives in Kolkata.
Not-to-be missed are his book jacket designs, booklet designs and sketches from shootings. The designs for comic characters Goopy and Byna are interesting too.