September 12, 1964– You know Chip Kidd’s work even if you don’t realize it. He designed the covers for the original hardbacks of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, Cormac McCarthy‘s The Road, David Sedaris‘s Naked, & my own favorites Donna Tart‘s The Secret History & The Goldfinch.
No one in the publishing world would actually say that you can’t judge a book by the cover. They spend a great deal of money hoping that is exactly what readers will do. Artist-graphic designer Kidd is probably the biggest star in the rarefied world of graphic design, regarded as the planet’s foremost designer of the special niche of book jackets. In his 30 years at NYC publishing house Alfred A. Knopf, Kidd has created more than 2000 book jacket designs, averaging 75 a year. His always ingenious, vivid, audacious covers helped revolutionize & revitalize the art of book packaging.
I always wondered about Kidd’s design process. It turns out that he reads the book first. Then he says that he uses:
“The magpie method of picking, choosing, borrowing things that have been done before. The process is driven by nothing.”
“A really good book cover has to work regardless of what it’s about, on a visceral and emotional level. I’m a matchmaker, not a pimp. I design jackets that are elaborate versions of name tags at singles parties. I introduce the prospective buyer to the text, & they either hit it off & go home together or don’t.”
Kidd’s many influences include graphic design legends Alvin Lustig from the 1940s & 1950s, Peter Saville, who did album covers in the 1970s & 1980s, & Soviet era Russian propaganda art . Kidd learned that the best style is no style.
“A signature look is crippling. Often, the simplest and most effective solutions aren’t dictated by style.”
I guess Kidd’s signature look is smart, striking, sly, bold design.
Crichton’s Jurassic Park is probably Kidd’s best known cover, with its illustration of a dinosaur skeleton that became the central image of the hugely popular film’s marketing campaign.
Kidd puts together & writes his own books that he then provides the covers. His first book was Batman Collected (1996), a volume for those with a proclivity for the Caped Crusader. Since then he has edited & designed other superhero coffee-table collections, including Superman (2001) & Wonder Woman: The Complete History (2012). Kidd’s first novel, the screwy, funny The Cheese Monkeys (2001) is a slightly disguised story of his time studying design under a sadist professor at a Penn State. His second The Learners (2008) is a sort of sequel & exploration of the interplay between words & images. His newest, Judge This (2015) is playful examination the importance of first impressions in design & in life.
Next month comes Only What’s Necessary: Charles M. Schulz & The Art Of Peanuts, Kidd’s collection of the art of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, curated with the cooperation of the late artist’s wife. Kidd spent a week in Schulz’s studio. The concept for the book’s design promises to make the reader feel as if they are rifling through Schulz’s sketches & drawings.
You most likely have many of Kidd’s artful covers in your own shelves or piles of books, but I highly recommend Chip Kidd: Book One, Work: 1986-2006. Stylishly designed & richly produced, this witty volume works both as a retrospective of Kidd’s renowned book covers gorgeously reproduced in lush color plates & as a memoir of his career in publishing.
“I did not grow up yearning to become a book designer. What I wanted to be was Chris Partridge on The Partridge Family.”
I am glad that didn’t work out. I am such a big admirer of Kidd’s striking covers that serve as objects of art as well as the first taste of the writing inside.
“One of the great advantages to designing book covers is that you don’t ever have to have an idea, much less a thought, ever, in your head. That is the author’s job.”
2 years ago, Kidd married his longtime partner, Yale professor & noted poet, J.D. McClatchy. The couple has residences in Manhattan, Stonington, & Palm Beach.
Kidd has stated that the cover of his own memoir would be:
“The most pornographic version of The Bible you’ve ever seen.”
I am sure it would be a bestseller.
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