The introduction to any book begins long before you've read the first paragraph. It begins when you decide to reach out and pick it up to see what lies between the covers. By Jigyasu Joshi
According to an adage, we should never judge a book by its cover. But then it’s just a figure of speech. However strongly we deny it, the fact remains that we do judge books by their covers. Readers are still visual people after all. In a deep text-based world of literature, to have a creative cover is vital to make the first impression. In recognition of the work and creativity that goes into designing book covers, Oxford Bookstore announced the awards for brilliance in book design.
“There are always some images and covers which an author gets fixated with while they are writing. They want the covers to subtly tell a bit of what the readers are about to find inside,” said writer and publisher Namita Gokhale. “However, the designers have altogether a different look at the cover. This at times also results in serious arguments between the authors and the designers,” she chuckled.
Talking about the details of a cover, she explained, “Not only the colour or pictures are important, the text size and font also play a major role. For instance, a Hindi book cover is completely different from the English book covers or Bangla book covers are distinct from the Assamese. Where Hindi book covers are explanatory in nature, English book covers are brief and open to interpretation. Also, Bangla book covers are very evocative. On the other hand, Assamese covers are very modern in style.”
“Book covers do not simply do the task of attracting the readers, it guarantees a pick-up by 70 per cent,” said Priti Paul, director, Apeejay Surrendra Group. “At our stores, we have noticed this pattern for long. Given this pattern, we decided to recognise the artists behind that work,” she added.
Paul will soon unveil her Bollywood-style alphabet books which she said have profuse artworks by designers. “We value creativity and design highly, and through this award we aim to give young graphic designers and artists exposure for the hard work they have put in,” she said.
The winner of last year’s award for excellent book cover, Bena Sarin, was also a part of the discussion and said that it is necessary for the designer or illustrator to understand the viewpoints of the author. It is equally important for authors to understand the need of having the illustrator’s point of view. “They are the ones who do not simply have the cover design in mind according to the story. Rather they have a holistic view as to how the cover will be looked at and understood by a prospective reader,” she explained.
Putting forth a different point of view, Aman Nath, writer, hotelier and architectural restorer said, “A book cover is not just an independent art-form. It is simply an appetiser. The taste of book comes only when you start reading it. So according to everybody else, a good designer of a bad book is guilty as they made you buy a book which you shouldn’t have bought.” When asked about his idea of a good book cover, Aman recalled, “I did a book titled Jaipur for which I got many suggestions as to what the cover should be like. Some suggested me to use pink font as it is about the Pink City while others wanted something different. Eventually, the cover had a one foot by one foot photo of a terracotta wall with a simple font. Many publishers rubbished it and then we did an experiment. At a bookstore in Mumbai, we displayed the book in a shelf of 50. Trust me, just because of the cover and the way it was used, the book glowed completely. All the other books went to sleep.” Nath emphasised that it is a combination of cover and content which makes for a good book. “I’m not saying that my book did well because of the cover. It is an important addition to the book though. But it is content and cover both that make a classic,” he concluded.