How Sunandini Banerjee built the distinctive visual identity of Seagull Books

There is a saying — ‘dont judge a book by its cover’. But when the covers are elaborate stories in themselves, one can no longer separate them from the narrative within. When Sunandini Banerjee, senior editor and graphic designer, Seagull Books, designs a cover, it becomes more than an image wrapping a book.

Through collage, abstraction, and illustration, her covers transform books by authors from different cultures and continents into symbolic visual narratives that often stay with a reader as much as the words within them. Sunandini Banerjee | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT In her ongoing exhibition Art of the Book, at DakshinaChitra, one can see some iconic book covers designed and curated by Sunandini, where the covers become a dialogue between image and text. Founded by Naveen Kishore in 1982, Seagull Books is an independent publishing house that has built a catalogue that spans continents and disciplines.

The exhibition traces that journey through covers for books by writers including Mahasweta Devi, Romila Thapar, Christoph Ransmayr, László Krasznahorkai, Satish Alekar, Nabarun Bhattacharya and Dominique Noguez, offering a glimpse into nearly four decades of independent publishing. Book covers from Art of the Book exhibition at DakshinaChitra Museum | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Sunandini’s own journey at Seagull began not as a designer, but as an editor. Despite, growing up in a family that loved books, she never imagined a career in design.

“I couldn’t draw,” she says. “In those days there was really no question of going to art school. Either you could draw or you couldn’t.

It just remained an interest — I never imagined I could actually do it.” It was only after she joined Seagull Books in 2000, as publishing was transitioning into the digital era, that a new possibility emerged. Speaking via visuals“The computer became a magic box.

Suddenly I could work with images in ways I couldn’t in the real world. Seagull never told me, ‘That’s not your job.’ I kept asking, ‘Can I try this?’

Maybe a poster. Then some pages of the Seagull Theatre Quarterly. Then eventually a book cover.

I was allowed to fail and to try again. That’s how in time I became a designer,” she says.Sunandini’s design process begins long before she opens her computer screen.

“First comes the text,” she explains. “I’ll read the title, and immediately some visual element leaps into my mind. Then I read the jacket and often the book itself.

Even if it’s fiction, I need to know the time, place, atmosphere, the age of the character — because the character may be imaginary but the place is not.” Nalini Bera’s Gold Sand, Gold Water, book cover design by Sunandini Banerjee | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT As she reads, she begins collecting the visual elements. “I’m pulling keywords out of the texts, like the place, time, city, maybe the important flower, or the ocean.

Then I use the internet to search for those elements. You don’t always know what a finished cover looks like. You’re looking for bits and pieces, and then placing them and seeing what works together.”

For Sunandini, every cover has to emerge from the story itself rather than from a preconceived notion of a place or culture. “I am against exoticisation,” she says. “I don’t want to put a peacock on the book cover just to tell it’s a story from India.”

The research cannot be short-circuited. Book covers from Art of the Book exhibition at DakshinaChitra Museum | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT That sentiment is reflected in the covers, be it DR Nagaraj’s The Flaming Feet and Other Essays, Romila Thapar’sPast as Present, or Nabarun Bhattacharya’s Herbert. The covers are surreal, edgy, and contemporary, where different elements are not just placed with one another, but complement each other in their own way.

Remembering Mahasweta DeviYet, she is careful to point out that not every book needs to aspire to being fine art. “It depends on the kind of book you’re designing for. Poetry, literary fiction, philosophy — these books lend themselves to a visually rich cover.

A textbook may not necessarily need the same treatment.”Dogstar by Nabarun Bhattacharya, cover design by Sunandini Banerjee | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT There are moments, she admits, where a book transcends its purpose. “We have all bought books that we perhaps never read or been disappointed with, but the cover is heart-wrenchingly beautiful.”

In an age dominated by online shopping and endless scrolling, Sunandini believes that thoughtful designs matter more than ever. “We’re bombarded by images all the time. To break through that visual noise and arrest someone’s attention even for a few seconds requires greater care.

You can’t say this book should look like five other books. There’s even more pressure to be unique now,” she says. Satish Alekar’s Two Plays cover design by Sunandini Banerjee | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Despite independent publishing houses facing challenges today, Sunandini re