September 2, 2009

Book Cover Design in India 1964 to 1984

This post now resides on my other site 50 Watts:

9 comments:

  1. some of these are stunning. seems like they're influenced by western design at the time, not that i'm at all knowledgeable on this. either way, as usual i'm both delighted to see these but saddened that this sort of graphical approach has died; i hate the look of almost every contemporary book i come across. thanks for another cool share.

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  2. Except for the three images (first two and the cover from 1980), the book's are in Gujarati. I think the rest are in Bengali, but I'm not sure.

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  3. Also worth checking out is Blaft, a new indie publishing house in Chennai that is producing a number of translations of vernacular pulp fiction from India (including the incredible Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction), and just came out with a postcard book "Heroes, Gundas, Vamps & Good Girls: Hindi Pulp Cover Art by Shelle" that rules.
    blaft.com

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  4. thanks for the comments.

    nsp, I'll add that info to the main post.

    paynith, blogs like Caustic Cover Critic are covering incredible living book designers. Learning the history of illustrated covers (in many different countries) definitely makes me mourn their loss. To replace commissioned illustrated covers with generic stock photography seems particularly sad.

    Alex, I do indeed know Blaft and have been dawdling on a post featuring one of their books for too long. I'll definitely check out the Shelle book, thank you.

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  5. These are just amazing I just couldn't take my eyes off.
    Thank you :)

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  6. helo.. these are really interesting bookcovers.. very graphical and intuitive... just to share.... I am a graphic design student at National Institute of Design. I am doing a research on bookcovers.. It would be my pleasure if you can share your views on bookcovers... we can catch up via mails....thanks
    shrimali.neha@gmail.com

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  7. Fascinating art. Thanks for posting these.

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