HSS Book Workshop 2023

Book Design Course

June 1-21, 2023
IIT Kanpur

About the Course

The short-term, practice-oriented course on book design was developed and facilitated by Sunandini Banerjee, the Senior Editor and Graphic Designer at Seagull Books, Kolkata. Designed in different modules, the course focused on two major aspects of book design- typesetting and book cover design. The participants were taught the basic rules of typesetting and editing, how to create digital images and collages, and finally, ways of designing book covers for paperbacks and jackets for hardbound books. The course provided the participants with comprehensive knowledge of digital aesthetics, universally followed norms in typesetting and the current trends in typography and cover designs. Banerjee's highly informative lectures, class demonstrations, ample references, and short assignments helped the participants know their areas of interest and gradually develop a language of their own, even within the short span of the course.

This display is a collection of selected work produced by the participants during the three weeks of the course.

This engaging and highly productive curriculum was hosted by the Discipline of Fine Arts at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kanpur. Prof. Shatarupa Thakurta Roy from the Discipline of Fine Arts was responsible for the ideation and coordination of the course.

Participants: Abhinav Basak, Aranya Bhowmik, Aratrika Roy, Arman Ovla, Asma Firdous, Ayan C. Mathew, Gargi Ghosh, Guruprasad Dey, Jayanti Mandi, Kalpana Nishad, Lalty Dutta, Mani Dixit, Midhun Pottayil, Naina Mitra Dutta, Partha Dutta, Prateek Trivedi, Rohini Dutta, Somedutta Mallik, Sourav Bhattacharya, Sourav Dutta, Vaishali.

Note: All creatives are designed for educational purposes using images available in the public domain. Therefore, no work should be downloaded, adapted or reproduced by individuals or organisations under any circumstances.

About the Instructor

Sunandini Banerjee wears many hats as an editor, translator, graphic designer, illustrator, and digital collage artist. She is also a Founding Faculty at the Seagull School of Publishing. Her long association with Seagull Books as an Editor and Graphic Designer since 2000 has credited her with hundreds of titles across genres. As a designer, she has designed over 600 book covers for Seagull Books, HarperCollins India, Zubaan Books, Speaking Tiger Publications and Women Unlimited, among others. Some of her noted digitally illustrated books are Victor Halfwit by Thomas Bernhard, Isha Upanishad by Pritish Nandy (translated), The Loss Library by Ivan Vladislavic, and The Upright Revolution by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, to name a few. Two of her major translation works include Mahasweta Devi's Bedanabala and Nabarun Bhattacharya's Herbert.

Banerjee's artistic pursuits received appreciation in the solo exhibitions of her digital collages in New Delhi, Kolkata, Cologne (Germany), Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. She was selected as one of the '50 BEST BOOK DESIGNERS' by the Shanghai Press and Publication Administration in 2013.