Getting to know Satyajit Ray as a book cover designer

Team L&M

As a part of the year-long celebrations marking the centenary year of the legendary filmmaker, writer, illustrator and music composer Satyajit Ray, India International Centre, New Delhi is holding an exhibition, Ray Between the Covers, of digital reprints of book jackets, illustrated and designed by the talented artist. Ray’s portfolio includes 5,500 book covers, posters, advertisement layouts and film titles and innumerable illustrations for Bengali fiction- both his own and others. But included in the show are over 70 book jackets that he created for his own fiction and non-fiction works; examples of his calligraphic covers; some jacked that show his word play with titles while still others that are buoyant and cheerful covers for children’s fiction.

Books covers of Bishnu Dey and Teen Rokom

A multifaceted genius who will be remembered as much for his graphic designing and illustrations as for his storytelling prowess, Ray was first and foremost an artist. He began his professional career in 1943 as a junior visualiser at DJ Keymer (now Ogilvy), a British-run advertising agency. Alongside this, he also began designing book cover for the newly-opened publishing house, Signet Press. He not only designed book covers, film posters and illustrated children’s books, but also indulged in calligraphy and typography creating numerous new fonts in Bengali besides four Roman fonts. And even though he turned into an excellent filmmaker, he never left art. In fact, he seamlessly merged sketching, graphic design and calligraphy with his filmmaking.

“Today Ray is known more for his films, but he actually began his career as a commercial artist. This exhibition, in a way, talks about the first chapter of his professional life when he designed covers for books,” says Indrani Majumdar, the brain behind the show. Some of the jackets are from Majumdar’s collection while some have been procured from Ray’s son Sandeep. “He gave us the digital copies of the book covers of Ray’s original books in Bengali and English,” says Majumdar.

A reading room has also been set up near the exhibition venue for people to enjoy Ray’s writings while they visit the show.

The show is on view till March 1, 11.00 am to 7.00 pm daily