Uber-cool book cover designer Chip Kidd gets his personal interior design style profiled in the New York Times's "The Book on a Graphics Superhero." The piece compares Kidd's home to "a very expensive toy store" meticulously outfitted with Batman art, action figures, and Kidd's new book, "Chip Kidd, Book One: Work: 1986-2006." USA Today calls Kidd "the closest thing to a rock star" working in graphic design, but his long-time partner, J. D. McClatchey, refers to Kidd's place as "the Bat Cave."
In Mr. Kidd's monograph, Augusten Burroughs describes an exchange, overhead at an airport bookstore, about the paperback version of his memoir "Dry," published by Picador last year. Mr. Kidd, whose title at Knopf is associate art director, has always had the freedom to design for whomever he liked (he is also an editor at large for Pantheon's comics division). The book chronicles Mr. Burroughs's experiences with alcoholism and recovery, and Mr. Kidd designed a cover whose type was soaked, so that it bled in rivulets down the frontspiece.
"A woman picked up the book," the only copy in the store, Mr. Burroughs writes, "and brought it up to the clerk. She said: 'Excuse me? But do you have another copy of this book? This one looks like it got all wet.' The clerk said: 'No, I'm sorry. All of them were wet like that.'"
Wow! A coffee table book about book covers. Wasn't that a Seinfeld episode?
3
boundcreature
Boston, MA
April 2004
NOV 05, 2005 04:44 PM
Chip Kidd is a shitty fucking designer.
4
alpha_hazard
Fort Collins, CO
April 2004
NOV 05, 2005 07:42 PM
Ever since I read "The Cheese Monkeys" I've had a lot more interest in graphic design, Chip Kidd's work is great. I just bought a book with no title that he did the cover design for...fucking sweet!
susannah_breslin
I'm lost
June 2005
NOV 05, 2005 03:23 PM