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JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER
When you go the bookstore, what makes you want to buy a book? If Chip Kidd has anything to do with it, you picked up that book because off the cover. Chip Kidd has been designing book jackets since 1986. He has created covers for hundreds of books including major bestsellers like Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park and Disclosure. Kidd works for Knopf Publishing Group, a division of Random House Publishing, as well as freelance work for a number of other clients. Much of Kidd’s style draws the reader in with interaction. His book jackets help the reader create an image in their mind to go along with the reading. Book jackets aren’t the only thing he does. Kidd also serves as an editor, where he supervises the creation of graphic novels.
Chip Kidd Judge a Book by Its Cover
Chapter One
Growing up as a Kidd In Shillington, Pennsylvania in 1964, Charles I. Kidd was born. During his childhood he was engulfed in pop culture, becoming a huge Batman fan. Kidd began his love of graphic arts looking at the packaging of the Batman toys at the supermarket. Kidd attended Pennsylvania State University majoring in Graphic Design. At age 22 he graduated PSU and was hired as a junior assistant to Sara Eisenman at Knopf Publishing Group. By the year 2002, Kidd had been working at Knopf for 16 years averaging 75 book jackets a year. Staff book jacket designers are known to be underpaid, so while working for Knopf, Kidd did some freelance work
“In the present day, Chip Kidd gets more publicity than his employer.� for other clients. These clients included HarpersCollins, Doubleday, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Grove Press, Penguin/Putnam, Scribner, and Columbia University Press. Kidd also works as an editor-at-large at Pantheon, an imprint of Knopf, where he supervises the creation of graphic novels. Along with graphic novels, he also works on one-of-a-kind projects, such as the coffee table book on the art of Charles M. Schulz, the creator of Peanuts. In the present day, Chip Kidd gets more publicity than his employer. He has avoided any managerial promotions to keep doing what he loves best. Kidd has become quite the jack-of-all-trades, a designer, a design critic, lecturer, editor, and a Batman memorabilia collector. 1
Chip Kidd Judge a Book by Its Cover
Chapter Two
Freedom of Design When it comes to Kidd designing a jacket for a book, he has the freedom of choosing what book he wants to work on. He is drawn more to books that are more challenging and edgy, rather than dull and boring. A lot of his designs are strictly done typographically. His typographical approach is conceptual, by using typefaces that evoke the mood. He also looks at the style
“Looking at book jackets is like watching TV without the sound.” and the subculture the literary works are targeted towards. Also in jacket cover designs, the work of photography is quite prominent. Kidd likes to distance the title from the image, which puts a kind of pressure on the readers. Asking them to bridge the gap between what they read and what they see. One of Kidd’s favorite ways of getting photographs for his work is searching flea markets. He likes to go find old family photo albums. If he finds interesting photos he’ll hold onto these photos until he gets a manuscript that seems fitting, and then pulls a photo from his collection. “Looking at book jackets is like watching TV without the sound.” Kidd explains. “It’s like being in a bar, or at the gym, and watching the news on the TV monitor without being able to hear anything. In that situation, even the most benign photograph of a smiling kid can spell disaster. You instantly imagine the worst case scenario.” He takes visual images and makes something new out of them.
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Chip Kidd Judge a Book by Its Cover
Chapter Three
Creativity Fueled by Frustration Kidd gets frustrated with the limitations of graphic design. Sometimes in his jackets he will use every surface of the hardcover jacket possible. He will design on the spine, the back, and the flaps. In this process Kidd is trying to escape the two dimensional world and enter a three dimensional one. At some instances he is able to design some of the inside of a books as well. Like with Watching the Body Burn by Thomas Glynn. He designed cartoon-like drawings that were able to merge with the jacket design. This book doesn’t compare to his published work though. In 2001, Kidd wrote and designed The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters. In this work, he attempts to change all the rules. He uses photographs that are a collage of bits of
“He will design on the spine, the back, and the flaps.” illustrations, captured with a macro lens, that result in a look of pastiche. The jacket is a sleeve that slides to reveal the case on which the title has been reinterpreted as a rebus by illustrator Chris Ware. The spine proclaims “Good is Dead”, almost obliterating the title of the book. The sides of the pages have been stained with a double cryptic message, depending which way you look at it. “Good is Dead”, if you flip the pages from front to back, and “Do You See?” if you flip them from the back. The text is set in two different typefaces, one for each semester.
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Chip Kidd Judge a Book by Its Cover
Chapter Four
Still a Kidd at Heart Chip Kidd has always been an avid reader of comic books, and also a huge fan of the Batman comics. “Comics are my Mr. Hyde to the Knopf Dr. Jekyll,” Kidd says to explain his dual career. Which makes his job at Pantheon as a graphic novel editor very fitting. Dan Frank, editorial director of Pantheon, says Kidd is essential in the production of these graphic novels, because all of the illustrators trust Kidd as an editor. Kidd makes sure any graphic novel that goes out is in close collaboration with the author’s distinct vision.
“Comics are my Mr. Hyde to the Knopf Dr. Jekyll,” 4
Chip Kidd grew up a comic book fan, majored in Graphic Design, and became a book jacket designer. His plan was to work for a big design firm after a quick stint of designing book jackets. One could only wonder what would have happened if Chip Kidd didn’t get that job at Knopf Publishing. Would the influence of Kidd’s book jackets encourage us to read those many stories turning them into bestsellers ?