Mumbai-based freelance designer Bhavi Mehta bagged the 9th Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize that was announced recently in Delhi. An alumna of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi, Bhavi calls herself an ‘old soul’ and a big hoarder of all things vintage. Mehta bagged the prize for Pradeep Sebastian’s The Beautiful Book that has a vintage feel to it. A t2 chat with the certified diver who also loves snorkelling and who has had experience working with a big publishing house.
Congratulations Bhavi! Tell us how significant the award is for you.
It’s a huge honour. I’ve been sending entries by myself and also a lot of publishers have been sending my book covers for years now, but I think this is the first time I’ve won it. It feels really great, indeed.
Coming to the book, The Beautiful Book is a memoir by Pradeep Sebastian. Were you given any brief or what was on your mind when you started off?
I have worked on Pradeep’s first book, The Book Hunters of Katpadi so I kind of knew Pradeep. I knew where he comes from, what his writing is. He had a clear vision of what he wanted for The Beautiful Book and so did Hachette India. They were both inclined towards doing something ornamental, but also something that fits really well with the writing. So the illustration that you see, the lino cut on the cover of the happy reader, is actually something from Pradeep’s personal collection.
The book cover has a vintage feel. What do you think clicked with the jury because there were 12 other books with exceptionally good covers?
The list had fantastic covers and I think it would have been a really trying decision for the jury because I also feel that design is something which is so personal and everybody has their own take on it. Shashi Tharoor also mentioned that the jury was divided on this cover. However, I feel maybe the two colours, the starkness of it made it a bit special.
The only reason why a cover works is if it resonates with the text. When a reader picks up the book, something about the cover will meet your eye. I feel somewhere during the process of reading, or maybe at the end of the book, you’ll always turn around and be like, ‘Oh, okay, this is what the cover was trying to say, or this is what the cover was trying to do’. Sometimes there can be an aha! moment for the reader.
Among the other books in the competition, was there any that appealed to you as a designer?
I was very impressed with the list. There were some wonderful book jackets in there and I feel each deserves to win the prize. Saurav Das’s Azad Nagar with illustration by Mohit Suneja was fantastic. I love minimal stuff and I feel either a book should be very sort of concept-led or it should be just very beautifully executed. I feel perhaps The Beautiful Book was more concept led and Azad Nagar was very beautifully executed.
Since you have had considerable experience in designing book covers, what is your process like?
I always start with getting to know as much as I can about the book, chat with the editor and the author. There are times when I don’t have enough time to go through all of it. I love all my fiction books because I feel there’s no getting around to not reading but non-fiction, I try to read at least 70-80 per cent of them, get basically to know them as much as I can because I feel the cover has to respond to the text. Then I go on to make a lot of notes and sketches while I read. When I come back to designing, I first start by picking up on my keywords.
There are times when I immediately know what I want to do with the cover but then there are times when you’re absolutely in love with the book and it’s so hard to detach yourself from the reading and look at it very objectively. I also start picking out motifs, images, illustrations, etc and then slowly start putting them together. I do at least 20 drafts and send about four or five of them out.
Are you also experimenting with AI?
I have not done that yet. I’ve actually got a lot of nudging from publishers to start exploring Chat GPT, and things like that but I have still stayed away from it because I’m slightly old school and I feel that I’m still very analogue when it comes to a couple of things. I’ve got nothing against AI, but I love to work with my hands.
What are you working on next?
I’m working on a few books for Juggernaut including a children’s book, which is called Physics for Kids. I’m also working on a website for a small gaming studio based out of Bangalore.