I visited the lovely Michigan Theater this week to hear Chip Kidd talk about graphic design and book covers. The program was part of the U of M Art-Design program and Sponsored by alumna Penny Stamps and AIGA Detroit.
From the program:
"'Words, pictures, yay!!!' Often called "the closest thing to a rock star" in graphic design, Knopf art director and author Chip Kidd has designed more than 2,000 book covers for authors from Michael Crichton to John Updike. Kidd has compiled his graphic design work in Book One; written a well-reviewed novel, The Cheese Monkeys loosely based on his college experiences, and exhibited his work at Cooper Union in 2006. Kidd's newest piece of fiction, The Learners, made its debut in 2004 online as part of USATODAY.com's Open Book series."
Chip has designed some of my favorite covers; from McCarthy to Murakami. He put together the best book on Batman collectibles ever and he designed the packages for the best comic strip in the universe - Maakies, by Tony Millionaire.
I've been fortunate enough to hear Chip speak on two previous occasions. He is always charming, funny, clever and thought provoking. This time around, he showed a handful of the covers he's worked on recently and talked about their genesis and evolution. Of particular interest to me was the story behind the jacket for Cormac McCarthy's The Road. As he tells it, the iconic black cover with red lettering was not the initial concept, nor the second, nor the third. It was the first cover he's done that Cormac wasn't happy with (the very first version was a shot up, burned out car). In the end, Mr. McCarthy did what many writers do - make terrible, uneducated, embarrassing suggestions to the world's preeminent cover designer. Some of these included a photo of a run down theater in Cuba and a compelling, but inappropriate 9-11 image. He also talked about the effects of the "Oprah" sticker on a jacket with what I found to be an impressive combination of humility, good humor and professionalism.
I was also pleased to hear him talk about Chris Ware's involvement in the cover of The Learners. Chris designed a beautiful, brand new font for the two word title. As Chip put it (er...not quite verbatim):
"Asking Chris Ware to do this would be like asking Frank Lloyd Wright do design a dog house."
More Chip Kidd video good/weirdness here. Don't ask me to explain, 'cause I can't even begin to.