Antra K.
Pronouns: She/Her
Where are you from?: Gurgaon, Haryana
Race/Ethnicity: South Asian
Languages: English, Hindi, French (beginner)
Where do you currently work at?: Freelance cover designer (former senior designer at Penguin Random House India)
One favorite book you've designed and why?: Designing the cover for The Muslim Vanishes was a very enjoyable process - from reading the play to mind mapping to exploring diverse cover directions to finally executing them. Capturing the author’s witty tone on the cover was immensely exciting too.
How did you get into design?: I decided to work towards a career in design when I knew I wanted to do something that involved drawing at my job.
What do you like about being a book designer in publishing? : My love for book cover design is split in two parts: I love getting to read about and research different subjects based on the book I am working on and second, finding engaging ways to visually represent the content. The more complex and nuanced it is, the more interesting it becomes.
Tell us a surprising fact about you?: When sleep escapes me at night, I watch air crash investigation (why it’s soothing to me is lost on me too). Perhaps owing to this, I am unable to fall asleep on a plane.
What's one goal you have for yourself in this industry?: One of them would be to work on a fully illustrated book for adults (from creating illustrations to designing the interiors and the cover) following an immersive process of thoroughly researching the content.
How do you overcome a creative block?: I take a break from what I am working on and complete other everyday tasks like cleaning (sometimes unnecessarily), organizing, walking aimlessly and looking around, etc and then come back to work with a (hopefully) fresh-er mind.