pinaki designs

BT Road / Bibar

2011-07-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

It is a challenge to do this one and I feel saibalda's photos inside the outline are truly fabulous indeed...perhaps i will do a kalkut translation one day...

24 Akbar Road

2011-06-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

Congress and Warhol! an unusual combination that I like!!! Initially, it was quite difficult to crack this one and thought that this will be another boring yawn-inducing non-fiction cover but once I and my editor, Nandita unboxed it, it was fun to work on this...I hope everybody likes it...Hachette India has tremendous production values and I think they will do proper justice with this one...

The Nothing Man

2011-06-28T06:56:00.000-07:00

This cover has the picture of my close friend sutirth (www.sutirth.com) on the cover...shot in my room with modest lighting it came out very well...i thought of using it earlier as well but it was not working out...a new cover, a new idea and i think it fits in perfectly...

Mice in Men

2010-11-14T20:57:00.000-08:00

This cover was a lot of hard work within a short period of time but then both I and saugata wanted a fun cover for beautifully-crafted poignant bunch of stories...there was a lot of brainstorming and we were actually dealing in cliched images...however, with just the graphic treatment, a refreshing cover emerged...@saugata: lets make a film...

Harper Collins Film Series

2010-10-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the first, second and third of the HarperCollins film series cover that I am doing...Now there are other monographs to come... even mithunda is not left out...dance dance...

The Garden of Solitude

2010-10-21T11:28:00.001-07:00

This wonderful photograph is taken by my colleague, Santanu Rana whose photographs are a delight to watch (www.santanurana.wordspress.com). My job was introduce the frosty silence of Kashmir...the ethereal but unnerving lull before the storm...This book, written by Siddhartha Gigoo, is published by Rupa.

Following Fish

2010-10-21T11:20:00.000-07:00

Wow!!! What a little gem of a book!!! I did three options...the one with the spread got selected...

Lost and Found

2010-10-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

This one is really a madcap of a book which I enjoyed doing...I wish I had bit more time to get more elements in it...however, the hinge of the cover is the inverted house which came to me suddenly while I was aimless watching birds on the terrace...so too the letter "o" of the word "lost" which is floating aimlessly along the edge of the cover...

The Slayer of Kamsa

2010-10-21T10:59:00.001-07:00

It has been a long time since I posted something...It is not that I have been doing less work but somehow I didn't upload those stuff...Here is one book which took a lot of time because of the intricate decorations that is part of this signature series...I hope it will create a lot of impact in the bookstore...saugata has promised the best of available production embellishments, so as usual, need to thank him again...

Come, Before Evening Falls

2009-10-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

One of the covers where I freaked out...It was done 3 weeks ago...it is a mixed media cover...I put in so many things and something magical came out of the mix...raw colour brushstrokes...small bits of scraped pictures, small hand drawn nuggets all adding up...

Roadrunner

2009-10-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

I am adding a cover after a hiatus of about 4 months...did a lot of covers though but was simply too lazy to put them up...this one is a very interesting one with stacked pictures giving it a feel of visuals rushing at the audience...the pictures are beautifully shot by Dilip himself and they do present a very candid America. I introduced certain small elements within the cover by drawing them...it broke the monotonous pattern of horizontality...One good thing about being a cover designer is that you get to read a manuscript long before it comes as a book form...this one absolutely stunned me with its tone and range...

A Rejected Cover - 1

2009-07-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

A cover which is rejected. A weave of 5 photographs, all of whom are taken by Saibal Das in various parts of the country...the red dots are dye cuts which could have looked striking as well...

The Curious Case of 221B

2009-06-24T00:26:00.000-07:00

This one has a minimalist treatment with a dye cut in the middle part through which the shadow of Holmes and Watson creep through. The background has also got a special treatment with a silvery shade. One of the books best seen when taken in and felt by hand. I hope the Harper guys do a great production job as they had done in Arzee. I am curious to see this one once it is out.

Shorts 1

2009-05-18T09:05:00.001-07:00

This is a contribution to Drigangchoo, a new magazine being launched at JU. This is a short piece done in an old style since then abandoned by me ... i am now trying out a different graphic style for my graphic novel, which seems to be forever in production ... still i want to feel satisfied myself before publishing anything ...

Arzee the Dwarf

2009-05-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

Chandrahas wanted a different shot which was also beautiful (somehow more ethereal!) but i thought that the last one in this line of options here would do better... so armed with the camera i spend three days on the streets of Kolkata and Chandannagar to create an ambience which should pass off as Mumbai...the hand that lit the cigarette is an accidental shot which was there way back from my JU days...the picture of the goat is courtesy francis mascarenhas, a young mumbai lad who is a very talented photographer, and whose work can be seen here at http://shadows77.deviantart.com ... the highrises are distorted kolkata, the slums from my hometown ... it shows how india is so common in an uncanny way...i am really proud of doing this cover... it took a lot of time and saugata, chandrahaas really provided me with imputs that made the cover what it is today... other editors would have put it off but kudos to saugata for his decision to stick to it ... there is a bit of irrational in the cover which is like the book as well...this one is hell of a book ... mark my words ... chandrahaas will go a long way.

Nothing is Blue

2008-12-30T22:38:00.000-08:00

Have I captured the brilliant premise of this novel? I am just concerned with that and will be digging for answers for a month or so. There is also a site designed by me and developed by Ritwick: www.nothingisblue.com

Socialism is Great

2008-12-13T11:54:00.000-08:00

A cover i think I will cherish! I need to thank Saugata for giving me this one...do keep it coming.

Tandoor Cinders

2008-09-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

This is a cover which i enjoyed designing...dark brooding with subtle surreal touches...

Typhoon & The Holy Woman

2008-05-09T21:30:00.001-07:00

I have tried to experiment again with a different graphic treatment that relies heavily on Illustrator. Moreover, it is always a challenge to faithfully recreate the cultural ethos of a different country that in a way, captures the essence of the book.

The Bioscope Man

2008-04-02T12:48:00.001-07:00

When I first entered the JU campus, I heard about a guy called Indi who had quite a cult following. I never saw him or for that matter, even if I did, couldn't remember him. Then came all those music reviews that shaped my cd shelf and I am still grateful to Indrajit Hazra for my early love for music. The Burnt Forehead of Max Saul was a bit of a letdown, although I liked its tone...The Garden of Earthly Delights followed and I still think this undiscovered gem didn't get its due worth although it may have been a tad overwrought...I still follow his editorial writings and expect a really good novel from him. This one is surely promising...I would have loved to work more on the sepia cover although it was not chosen...

3 Zakia Mansion

2008-04-02T12:39:00.000-07:00

The spread above was finally chosen although I also like the the other one...The photograph was shot at one of my favourite haunt at Chandannagar...who knows how long it may stay that way...

Families at Home

2008-04-02T11:39:00.001-07:00

Families at Home by Reeti Gadekar to be published by Harper Collins was shortlisted for the ManAsian Literary prize 2007. This cover is a welcome change from all the "proper" stuff I was doing for a long long time. This IS my style...with blood on the tracks...

Trying to Grow

2008-03-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

I literally gave up hope of doing this cover as I was fiddling with stereotyped cover ideas...It is a melange of images taken from the place where I get inspired every moment: the comics. The drawing is not greatly different from available comics but when put on the cover of a book like that of Kanga's, it works remarkably well. There will be more subtle manipulations and they will put up whenever done.

The Silent Raga

2008-02-20T10:48:00.000-08:00

Saugata and I are gradually developing into a great team...just like I share a great synergy with Ajanta. He is like a dream editor who gives you a lot of space. I enjoy the constructive process of putting a cover together which is fun, really. This is a very good book and I think it deserves every bit of accolade it is getting worldwide. Sometimes I wonder how unlike me are my covers...the hard-hitting ones are waiting to be born.

Books by Kunal Basu - Redux

2008-01-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

This is how the covers stand after redoing it with that extra splash of colour. The golden colour will be embossed to give it a more exclusive look. I have tried to maintain a consistent series look to all the books to give it an identity of its own...

Books by Kunal Basu

2008-01-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

Originally I thought of minimalist covers... In fact, Racists cover idea was immensely liked by Saugata. However, Kunal wanted more colour and I changed my mind...

Lacan Seminar 2

2008-01-04T09:46:00.000-08:00

It is a pleasure to do posters for Santanuda, my teacher at Jadavpur. His only brief, for the second time on a trot (please refer to the archives for Lacan Seminar 1) - do whatever you like. This magical brief never fails to produce the desired effect. I always feel free while designing posters for Jadavpur University - the place which nurtured my creativity and made me feel at ease. In both the posters I like James Joyce's pose, a man with whom I can connect the most.

The Japanese Wife

2008-01-01T09:59:00.000-08:00

This book of exceptional short stories by Kunal Basu is about to be released in January from Harper Collins India. I have tried to convey the sublime romance in the title story though small details of Japanese miniatures amidst warm shades. The pictures are from the forthcoming film The Japanese Wife directed by Aparna Sen which is sure to make the book quite popular. Earlier I tried the vertical Japanese style lettering but that seemed to overwhelm the whole cover. As always, sheer simplicity speaks more...

Black Chin White Chin

2007-07-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

The cover of this forthcoming book is a real toughie... so for a change just concentrated on the tone of the book specially the colour texture which if used innovatively can capture the atmosphere of a narrative like nothing else... In final analysis, I think saugata also made the correct decision of concentrating on a single image balanced by the large typo at the bottom. The end result, I think, is quite nice...

The Observant Owl

2007-07-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

I simply love the subversive quality of the original book which remains a perennial favourite. It is an extremely tough (almost impossible) book to translate and I am personally amazed by the audacity of the person who even attempted to have a go. It is a fitting tribute to Hootum that Swarupda, who possesses an edgy humour behind his seemingly "proper" demeanour, has done the honours. I also have a secret desire to see Hootum on screen and expect an equally spunky person to create that classic. The cover just plays around with open white space which in a way is thematically antithetical to the plethora of characters that crowd the book. In a way, this book introduces the imprint Black Kite which in future may be a landmark for Permanent Black - one of the few publishers in India who can marry academia with popular appeal without compromising too much... Whatever, their logo remains one of the best I have even seen and it is a privilege to see my name by the side of such a killer logo.

Worldview Critical Companion - 1

2007-07-12T10:50:00.000-07:00

For a long time during the beginning of my designing career, I worked a lot on Worldview critical companions. It gave me a chance to redo a lot of classics... However, now I would have done them differently...

From Raj to Swaraj

2007-06-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

My original idea was more flamboyant but the author settled for this tight busy look. By the way, the book is quite a fascinating read and (Oh yes!) documentative.

The poster that never made it...

2007-06-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

This poster which imitated the old machine draft on rough paper never made it to print. I felt for Debanjan da who really did so much to give it a life of its own but sometimes everything is not in our hands...Can you notice the barcode here doubling up as book spines ?? I think this could have been better represented.

Without Dreams

2007-05-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

Rarely do I recommend books of which I create covers. This one is an exception. It stirred me a lot perhaps because of its inner violence that spilled out too often for my own comfort. A dark tale needed an appropriate cover and what I have done makes me come to terms with my often violent streak. A word of praise for the senior editor Saugata Mukherjee of Harper Collins India who (to my surprise!) chose this dark one over a more sanitised version (which I would try to post later).

Joy

2007-05-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

Joy Goswami is a brilliant poet. Period. I cease to get objective whenever I read his poems. So when Sachin Rastogi of Worldview said that he wanted to publish a translation of his poems, I was delighted. I still haven't gone through the translations and this cover is entirely based on my reading of Joy's Bengali originals. The cover is very personal and although I am yet to get a final feedback from Sachin, I thought it should be up here.
Hmm... the top one is the sanitised version... and the published one. I understood the poets themselves don't always understand.

Manna Dey

2007-05-01T02:52:00.000-07:00

Can any cover ever capture the texture of his voice? Nevermind you can just keep trying...

Dateline Islamabad

2007-05-01T02:28:00.000-07:00

I truly enjoyed doing this cover. The strength of this cover lies in the meticulous composition of various scattered elements.The subject is interesting and a bit offbeat which makes a case for an out of the box cover.

Invitation Cards for BCL

2007-03-18T06:36:00.000-07:00

I personally like designing invitation cards. They pose a challenge of different kind. Sometimes a well designed card makes you keep invitations otherwise you may have skipped. These are two cards I designed for British Council Kolkata. One for a launch of a cricket book and another for Benjamin Zephaniah performance. Both of them are teasing in their own way. The cards are presented sequentially - the front flap, the inside and the back flap.

Explosion of words

2006-09-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you need to go for pure ideas. Period.

English Language

2006-08-24T06:43:00.000-07:00

I am fascinated by Asterix so this cover is in a way my humble tribute to the drawing skills of Uderzo. There is an undertone of parody - a mock situation which hints at the eclectic development of English language down the ages.

Look Before You Leap

2006-08-23T22:37:00.000-07:00

I created this humorous poster rather casually. I think the execution can be a lot better specially the drawing in the background but I am really proud of the idea. Actually it was sent as an entry to a competition organised by Calcutta Police to promote awareness among the jaywalkers who do not abide by the Zebra crossing. The entry earned me a pat at my back from the then chief himself but failed to win a prize which was not surprising at all. There was no text in the poster whose image was enough to get the message through.

Ray

2006-05-09T22:56:00.000-07:00

"Speaking of films" is the English translation of Satyajit Ray's "Bishoy Chalachitro" - a melange of articles regarding filmmaking. I read it in the original. Despite its slim appearance it still remains a definitive book for a beginner who wants to dabble on film-making. I just wanted to do a cover with intelligent dispersal of various eyes of the Ray's film protagonists looking at or away from each other.

Amitabh

2006-05-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

I personally don't like Amitabh a lot. I think he could have influenced Bollywood towards adulthood during the 70s but he didn't. He had an over bearing influence then. He was happy to reside in his own cocoon of "megastardom". As an actor he is above-average, certainly not of the calibre of a Naseer or a Kamal Hassan or a Soumitra. But he never ceases to surprise me. Right now, sometimes he really surprises me with his acting like in "Sarkar", a role tailormade for him. He CAN be very powerful if used well and with insight. However, he is a true icon of this diverse nation - there can be no doubt about that. With these bittersweet ideas i approached the cover. Initially i wanted to capture a visual story of an Amitabh film being screened in the open while an enthusiastic boy wanted to touch the screen ... to "feel" him. Then I settled for a retro look which was intentionally made pulp-y to capture the lost era with its fetishes. The cover finally chosen is the third one in the sequence.

Palimpsest Seminar Posters

2006-03-29T10:45:00.000-08:00

I take a lot of pride in these works as everything from the photos to the arranged detailing is shot by me using my own Canon 2s 1s which I think is a great camera to own. Only the third one which is the cover of the folder distributed at this international conference has a photo shot earlier by Ujjal De for an entirely different assignment. Other promotional materials were also designed by me. There are other variations of the poster as well but I selected these two for their inherent contrast. The brief was just that. Great fun.

Film Theory

2006-03-29T10:27:00.000-08:00

Still unpublished but in the pipeline... I am not entirely satisfied although the publisher is quite happy with the cover. Out of the box film book covers are always tough to do. The shot of the hand is mine. I tried to give a different background with blue brushstrokes. However, what I envisaged in the beginning I failed to execute - that's a confession.

The Posters 2

2006-03-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

Freud and Lacan deconstructed...

Seminar On Freud and Lacan - The Posters Part 1

2006-03-29T08:14:00.000-08:00

These are all part of the hugely successful Lacan Symposium held at Jadavpur University when I was a student there. I still think Santanu Biswas (always Santanuda to me and one of my fav teacher) gave me a lot of liberty in conceiving and executing the posters. I took the words "Freud's French Revolution" and played around them. The first one is a blend of real Artaud performing with the painting "Murder of Marat". The second one is a take off from Delacroix's iconic painting incorporating Freud's face in one of the revolutionaries while the third was a beeped blurb spoken by Eiffel Tower itself.
Ofcourse it is a five letter word: F R E U D.

Freud Redone

2006-01-25T05:58:00.000-08:00

This is not published but a redone cover. I am fascinated by the "Introducing" series pioneered by Icon Books England. The graphic novel format was a great way to make the readers acquaint themselves with new ideas and concepts. My favourite is The Beginners guide to Holocaust. In the above cover, I wanted to catch the fun element at the conceptual level. The cartooning skills are mine and I thought it came out very well.

Rhetoric of English India

2006-01-25T05:49:00.000-08:00

This is an important academic book and the Indian edition is a welcome respite from the costly foreign editions. Being a lecturer in English I felt very happy when I received the brief to do the cover. I settled for a minimalist cover with lot of open spaces to ponder about.

The Guide

2005-12-29T02:02:00.000-08:00

The Guide is book that I teach in the undergraduate courses. Most of the books of RK Narayan has very stolid cover although the possibility is immense. I seized on a key metaphor of the journey ( which also double up as "The feet of the Guru") for this minimalist cover.

Waiting for Rain

2005-12-29T01:50:00.000-08:00

I attach a lot of emotional value to the cover for a lot of reasons. The picture of the girl is my sister and I think my shot captures her soft inner beauty very well. The picture also fits the theme of the cover. The other picture is from Satyajit Ray's "Pratidwandi" - a film on the angry young generation of 1970 s Bengal, one of my favourites. It was also one of the first cover I did for Penguin India.

My Temporary Son

2005-11-21T01:44:00.000-08:00

I was warned that the writer is extremely meticulous about what he wants. There were visions and revisions and further revisions till I got what he wanted. I like the pair of eyes in the cover and had a tough time to blend them creatively with the backgroud texture and lighting arrangement.

Island of Infinity: Marina's Dream

2005-11-21T00:15:00.000-08:00

My first Puffin book. Although the book is for grown-up kids I didn't approach the design that way. I just saw it as another cover for a very interesting adventure tale. It is a work that involved a lot of detailing. Done entirely in Adobe Illustrator, the design is perhaps one of the most time-consuming work done by me till now.

Thoughts

2005-11-20T23:58:00.000-08:00

Hey I am proud of this one. We can call this "Our Magazine". This was designed when I was still a student at Jadavpur University. We didn't have money neither the foresight about the market. It sold too well - infact so well that by the end of the Book Fair we didn't have any copies left. Even not one for myself. Later I picked one up from the old magazine stall at Golpark, Kolkata where the life of every magazine seem to converge with almost ruthless regularity.

Covers of Bengali books

2005-11-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

It is a fact that very few Bengali books could match the production standard of the more costly English books but it is also true that most of them have thought-provoking covers. My idol in Book designing is Purnendu Pattrea who excelled while designing solely vernacular books. Krishnendu Chaki, Debashis Deb, Pronobesh Maity, Hiran Mitra, Subroto Chowdhury - all of them primarily design Bengali books but their work is world class. Keeping those work in mind I still have a long way to go. These two book covers are oil painted although the font is done in computer.

First Proof 1

2005-11-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

Everybody loved this cover but I still think some of the options were better. Special thanks goes to Ujjal Dey, the photographer who meticulously carried out my idea with finesse of a professional. The flip back cover was an idea that came from Penguin so I cannot claim any credit for that. Overall I think it was the refreshing colourful look that hooked everyone.

Padmarag and Sultana's Dream

2005-11-17T11:54:00.000-08:00

This book is a classic in Indian literature and I am glad that Penguin India has published its translation. It has been a long wait and the book was almost forgotten. I did the cover painting which is tribal in style but modified to suit the content - that of a feminine utopia. It is a subtle change and I think the idea works. It preserves its unique Indian feel and combines the intricacy of its inherent storytelling fervour.

Olivia and Jai & its sequel

2005-11-17T11:38:00.000-08:00

The covers that convinced me that I can take this hobby commercially. I was not at all used to these kind of fluffy Raj romances and when the brief of Olivia and Jai came from Penguin India I was literally scampering for cover. Ajanta made me believe that I could do these kind of "pulpy" classical cover. Even Bena loved these. Surprise! Surprise! Sometimes you wonder what you can do with a little bit of support!! The sequel was a tougher one but I think the red colour singed everybody. It is the colour of my blood.

Calligraphy based covers

2005-11-17T11:14:00.000-08:00

I love calligraphy and seek to learn it some day from experts. Still I try to dabble with the subject and sometimes come up with fair results. These two covers are font-based along with some interplay of open spaces. However I tried to impart a definite calligraphic-pattern to the arrangements of the letters.

Hundred Years of Solitude Cover drafts

2005-11-17T10:54:00.000-08:00

It is a pity that these covers were not published. I actually gave it a try after Penguin India wanted me to send some tentative options. Each and every word that I read in the book (one of my favourites!) came out on computer screen with a creative burst of energy that I fear I could not replicate. These two options are part of my portfolio permanently and I have since developed an emotional attachment with these two cover options.

Mosquito and Other Tales

2005-11-17T10:38:00.000-08:00

Here is one cover I am extremely proud of. This is an assignment for Penguin Books, India. Done in Adobe Illustrator it was conceived and executed in half an hour after numerous botched attempts. I must also thank the perseverance of Ajanta(as always!) and Diya at Penguin for bearing with those horrible tentative options. The book is also a must read - a wonderful translation of Ghanada stories which are so popular in Bengal.

Cultural Studies

2005-11-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

This cover needed an academic look yet I refused to get bogged down by the original brief. I am fascinated by graphiti on the walls and tried to imitate that look with some deft brushwork. The picture at the back is a streetposter of a tribal girl with sunglasses that goes well with the eclectic content of the book. The reason I am posting this cover first is because it is an acknowledgement of the persons behind my career as a graphic designer - Nilanjana Gupta, the author of the book and teacher par excellence and Sachin Rastogi, the dynamic publisher of Worldview Books who gave me a chance when I was so raw.