Photo by Gaurav Gupta
Ahlawat Gunjan’s practice exists at the confluence of literature, art, and design—a rare intersection where narrative becomes form and aesthetics finds its purpose. With a recent MA in Interior Design from the prestigious Royal College of Art, he has expanded his creative terrain, bringing a seasoned understanding of visual storytelling into the spatial realm. His work moves fluidly between London and New Delhi, embodying a global sensibility that infuses each project with multicultural nuance and contemporary relevance.
For Ahlawat, a book and an interior space are kindred mediums—each a vessel for story, each an architecture of experience. The essence of his practice remains constant: to give form to narrative, to make beauty inhabitable, and to render intention visible. His work thrives in the dialogue between concept and craft, between the honesty of material and the resonance of emotion. Increasingly, his focus turns toward the ecology of design—recycling, repurposing, and reimagining spaces and materials to uncover new purposes and possibilities.
Previously trained at the Glasgow School of Art, complemented by specialized studies in design thinking and leadership at Indiana-Purdue University, he is a graduate of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. His formative apprenticeships at Lars Mullers in Switzerland and Faber & Faber in the UK established a sophisticated and bespoke visual vocabulary in publishing design.
His book cover designs serve as visual preludes to the stories they house, each design a dialogue between form and content. During his transformative decade as Art Director at Penguin Random House India, Ahlawat drove the visual language for literary luminaries including Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Jhumpa Lahiri, Orhan Pamuk and many others. His hands-on approach reflects his belief in design as a form of authorship, where visual elements are carefully curated to create a complete sensory experience. His distinctive design voice has resonated through the halls of global publishing, with commissions from prestigious houses including Knopf Doubleday, HarperCollins Australia, Bloomsbury UK, Penguin Random House UK, Harvard University Press, Yale University Press, Princeton University Press, Soho Press, Blackstone Publishing, Lannoo, Manteau, Hurst, Scribe and Little, Brown among others.
Now based in London, Ahlawat continues to inhabit the fertile border between disciplines. His work suggests that the line between a page and a room, between reading and dwelling, is thinner than we imagine—and that both, at their best, are ways of living inside a story.
For collaborations and inquiries: ahlawatgunjan@gmail.com
Awards
Jury’s Special Mention, Oxford Bookstore cover prize for The Penguin Book of Indian Poets 2024
Jury’s Special Appreciation, Oxford Bookstore cover prize for Invisible Empire • 2023
Shortlisted, PublishingNext book cover prize for Victory City • 2024
Winner, Oxford Bookstore cover prize for Gun Island • 2021
Winner, Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival for Rising Heat • 2020
Winner, Illustrated Book of the Year and Printed Book of the Year by Publishing Next • 2020
Winner, Printed Book of the Year for Indica • 2017
Shortlisted, Best Cover of the Year by Publishing Next for The Body Myth • 2020
Finalist, Scottish Institute of Enterprise Award • 2011
Winner, Governor’s International Post-Graduate Scholarship • 2010
Winner, J.N. Tata Scholarship • 2009
Winner, Herron Scholarship and Fellowship • 2009
Lectures and Talks
Bold, Regular and Normal TEDx at IIM, Udaipur • Jan 2024
Guest speaker at Jaipur Literature Festival, Jaipur • Jan 2024
Guest faculty at Seagull School of Publishing, Kolkata • 2017, 2018, 2023 &2024
Guest speaker at Jaipur Literature Festival, Jaipur • Jan 2023
Guest speaker at Vidarbha Literary Festival, Nagpur • Feb 2023
Guest speaker at Kala Ghoda Festival, Mumbai • Feb 2023
Guest speaker at Bateein, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad • May 2022
Disaster and Hope TEDx at BITS, Pillani • Jan 2020
Panelist on cover design discussion at Jaipur Literature Festival, Jaipur • Jan 2020
Cover to Cover, Paper presentation at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad • Nov 2019
Guest faculty at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad • 2007, 2011, 2018 & 2019
Guest faculty at Mudra Institute of Communication Ahmedabad • 2019
Guest faculty at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, Birmingham • 2012
Guest faculty at Indian Institute of Craft and Design, Jaipur • 2007
Exhibitions
Slow is Beautiful, solo show at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi • Jan 2023
Solivagant, Solo show at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi • Dec 2019
Words from My Window (based on the book by Ruskin Bond), Alaya Studio, Dehradun • Oct 2018
The Room on the Roof (based on the book by Ruskin Bond), Alaya Studio, Dehradun • Oct 2017
That Short Togetherness, solo show at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi • Apr 2015