Seventeen

Seventeen is a collection of short stories by Anita Agnihotri.

It's a challenge..to do a book cover on short stories because there's

only so much that one can do. Carrying the number as an element is an

exercise on its own. Loved working on this.

Nitish Kumar

Much in the news: Nitish Kumar

Is Wheat Killing You?

Is Wheat Killing You consists of recipes that deal with gluten-free cooking.
Cover photographs have been shot by Shailan Parker.

I remember how we took classes with him on Studio photography..we used to spend entire days
shooting a wine bottle or cigarette smoke..it surely was a lot of fun..

Today i feel proud to have designed a cover that contains photos by him.

In the Bazaar of Love

There is something about this title that compelled
me take up the cover.In the Bazaar of Love is a very strong,
evocative title.Somehow it holds equal weight as
"The Kite Runner" for me.
I enjoyed painting the type form here.

Amir Khusrau was a Sufi mystic, a poet and
is regarded as the father of "qawalli"

Kama Sutra

I love Minimalism. It so very well relates to the phrase "Less is More"
To make the cover look minimalistic and powerful is a challenge on it's own.
It was difficult to get the accurate ground color but the colors in the final book
have come out beautifully.

Becoming Buddha

Buddhism is something that never fails to draw my attention.
The monks, their culture, their music is very fascinating.
This is the approved cover. It has been produced beautifully and has a nice textural feel to it.

The cover below is the one that got disapproved.

Blue Blood

This book belongs to that period when India had almost achieved Independence but some of the royals were still in India. There are interesting stories about Indian maharajas married to royal princesses. Blue Blood denotes those royals who always stayed inside palaces and never toiled under the sun so their blood became Blue.

The cover photograph is by Pritom Ghosh, an amateur but quite an enthusiast, based in Kolkata.

This was one of my quick designs.

Khali Kitaab ka Jadoo

Calligraphy is the art of beautiful handwriting. I remember when we were kids, our calligraphy teacher used to come with his suitcase loaded with different varieties of pens. His favourite student used to make the suitcase a pillow and practice on it.

He once told us how he got frisked at the airport where security thought that the pen was actually a bomb! He landed up doing calligraphy at the airport and describing how he made those pens. I am sure the security personnel were impressed.

I had lost touch with calligraphy but with Hindi books i feel that there is a potential to take my writing further to the next level. Here, i enjoyed writing more than designing the cover.

To Whom It May Concern

I am in love with Black and White photos. They make everything look appealing.

The photographer Angelo is born with heart valves that are not upto the standard but he lives without complaints and to the fullest.

What Really Happened

Waiting is a fascinating theme to work on..
there are so many ways to depict it..subjective
of course.

Rain makes me melancholic.

Vivek and I

Vivek and I was fun to work on. It's a quick read. My first book on gay rights.

Book Cover : There was no one at the Bus Stop

Book Cover: Killing the Water

It was pouring in Delhi that day...quite so that i even took a lift to get out of my apartment.. I felt it was the perfect day to do this cover. For i had the exact emotion in my mind and i knew i would be able to get it on paper. As a designer, i feel there are days you know when you know you are going to crack it. None of us want to miss it.

The title story "Killing the Water" runs across a family who constantly fight with water level entering their house. They try of all the methods to raise their ground level and build a new house.
Till then their pond breeds fishes, which is a source of their bread and butter but one day even the pond water fails to endure...

This is one of the covers that went ahead smoothly and the author liked it :-)

Attaching the author's comments here..
Wonderful. You did an amazing job with the cover. Everyone who's seen it has only had strong words of praise. I did receive my copies of the book and I'm very happy with the book.