Chip Kidd Influence Project Final

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Batman’s number 1 fan

“Never fall in love with an idea.

They’re whores: if the one you’re with isn’t doing the job, there’s always, always, always another.”

Chip Kidd I chose Chip Kidd because of his “first impression” from his TED talk video. I enjoyed watching his video about designing book covers. After he walks across stage and stands for a couple seconds, he suddenly does a funny dance move, causing the crowd to laugh.

Automatically I knew I was going to like this video and this crazy character. He goes into detail about the stories when creating ideas for his book covers. That was also another reason why I chose him: he designed book covers.

This is hopefully what I would want to do as a career in the future so he is an influence to me.

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While diving deeper into his artwork, I discovered I really liked his style. My favorite book cover he has made is the book called “GO: A Kidd’s Guide To Graphic Design”. The irony in the book cover by placing the word “go” on a stop sign. Personally, I find it genius that he did that because it is so out of the ordinary and against what we know as a stop sign. It is creative and innovative and certainly a contribution to the design world. I want to make innovative and creative designs like Chip Kidd does, especially for the world of books, By choosing him as my topic I can hopefully gain the knowledge towards creating book covers.

“I wouldn’t buy a book simply because I like the cover. I would pick it up. The jacket can call your attention to it. But in that sense, Oprah Winfrey is worth all the jackets in the world. A jacket is basically trying to do what she does all on her own.”

Contributions This piece was “the most recognizable icon of the 1990’s” according to Chip, and is still recognized to this day. Kidd was able to bring the story of Jurassic Park into a visual that made sense to the story, but was simple enough that it didn’t give the story away.

As told in his TED talk, Kidd went to the museum and “researched” dinosaur bones by buying a book. He then made a copy of a diagram in a book and traced over it with a rapidograph pen. He settled on an image of the dinosaur where it looked like the viewer was seeing the creature come into being. If Kidd never became an assistant at Knopf, instead of being a graphic designer, we wouldn’t have had this timeless logo to represent this $1.9 billion movie series.

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“I think too many comic book covers are way too busy, crammed with far too much information, both visual and verbal, that just becomes a dull noise.”

Contributions Chip’s love of Batman since he was a child was “his gateway to graphic design”. This passion for Batman lead him to be one the world’s experts on Batman, and was even the author, designer and art director of Batman Collected. He also has written a graphic novel called Batman: Death by Design, which features Batman exploring the problem the architecture in Gotham suddenly destructing.

He has worked on 12 projects regarding Batman, including a Batman manga since the one in Japan were not collected nor translated in English. Regarding book cover design, Kidd said that one should “try to create something that will give a unique, interesting and visual identity to a piece of writing” 4

“Design is a response to a specific problem. You are given a problem to solve, and then you let the problem itself tell you what your solution is.”

“Commercial Art tries to make you buy things.

Graphic Design gives you ideas.”

Contributions Chip Kidd has made a large contribution to the design world through his perspectives on graphic design. Since he has worked with Knopf for about 27 years, he has a unique idea to what book cover design and graphic design are and what they represent. In an interview with Smashing Magazine, Chip describes the role of a book cover, “It is a part of the book. It’s literally your first impression — it’s the book’s face.

Regardless of what kind of book it is, this is the way you’re going to visually preserve it first before you open it.” He also has a very different viewpoints regarding typography, in which he believes that the image can be more powerful than the words, which is something nearly almost every graphic designer may agree with. Finally, Kidd was once told to look at everyone else’s work, and then to make something completely different, which is also a perspective that guided his life towards eventually winning an AIGA award for graphic design.

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Project 1 This project I find as one of my favorites simply because of the irony in the cover. In this project, he used order as the layout using grids in order to achieve balance. There is also contrast in the colors between the the main image in the center and the title at the bottom. There is not a lot of tension in the piece since there is an even space around the borders. There is also contrast between the scale with the image and the text at the bottom. This piece also resonated with me because of how the back and the front covers connected with each other, and I really thought that brought the whole piece to the next level.

Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design

by Chip Kidd Published October 2013 Guide to graphic design to help build skills and share perspectives.

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Project 2 This project was another favorite again because of Chip Kidd’s innovative creations. For this project, Kidd printed out the image and while the ink was still wet, he dumped water on it to create the ruined, wet look. He created irony by showing the opposite of what the word means. In this piece, he created a lot of contrast with the black type on white background, however Kidd balanced this stark contrast by making the ink bleed. This effect also creates a realistic texture and an interesting shape as lines made from the water move across the page. The project also creates an orderly space between the title, “a memoir” and the author’s name, yet there is still a little tension between “the new york times best-seller” and the “d” in dry, which is probably the weakest point in the piece.

Dry by Augusten Burroughs Published June 2013 Memoir describes author’s battle with alcoholism.

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For this project, I was immediately drawn to the large blue eye in the center. Since that is mainly Kidd’s style of having the image be more important and attention grabbing than the text, it made me want to figure out what this book was about. This piece uses contrast in scale between the eye and the text around it to first grab the attention of the viewer and then makes them curious about the book. It also has tension around the edges of the piece because of the text and image being so close to those edges. There is also contrast in the text that creates hierarchy, guiding the eye throughout the cover. The project also creates balance and closed gestalt by having a rectilinear quote at the top of the page and then the authors a piece of information at the bottom in order to hold together the circular pieces in center. The piece also includes texture only in the image however not in the background, which is a common theme in Kidd’s other pieces, creating a more simple but impactful cover.

Project 3 Moonlight Sonata At The Mayyo Clinic by Nora Gallagher Published 2013 Memoir about author’s fight with an illlness in her eyes.

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Project 4 This project really resonated with me because compared to the other book jackets for this book, this one seemed the most interesting and eyecatching. Opening up the whole jacket, the bird image goes across the whole page, which is a technique that I find really creative, and causes the viewer to see the book cover as a whole, not just for the front cover. Since the front cover only shows the bird’s head, the title and the author, it creates a unique shape with bright, contrasting colors and texture. It is also very balanced with the scale of the image compared to that of the text, and also the colors of the red orange a the top and the pale blue at the bottom. There is also some tension around the edges of the piece as parts of the wind up bird are cropped, which creates more intrigue than it does distract the viewer.

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Baruki Muakami Publishes April 1994 Fiction novel about a man who goes on a wild adventure searching for his wife while meeting various allies and antagoinists.

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Project 5 This project was probably the most interesting one that Kidd has made. He took a recurring themes from the book, such as duality and 1Q84, and put it together to form a book cover that already gets the reader to consider that is happening with the girl. Kidd uses order to form the book’s title on top of the woman’s face. He also utilizes tension by using the vellum over top to create two planes of existence. The typography is very balance on the axial grid along with the scale between the image in the background and the title over top. The vellum also creates an interesting texture for the book, and having the author’s name in black also creates contrast with the background. The cover also has very limited negative space because it is filled with the image and the text.

Finally, with the text over the image, it creates a unique shape between copy and image that helps create that duality theme of the book itself.

1Q84 By Haruki Murakami Published May 2009 Fiction novel introduces a woman emerging from one time period into another, confused as to why.

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Project 6 This project also resonated with me because of its simplistic design and the work on the typography. The title seems very stretched out in the word “geek” however it is balanced by the somewhat fatter “love”. This project uses only two complimentary colors that create contrast, but not so much that the words vibrate on the page. It is very symmetrically balanced with an axial grid system along its center. It also has lots of negative space and no image compared to the other book covers the Kidd has designed. Also the author’s name is so close to the edge at the bottom that it creates some tension that weighs down the rest of the text on the page. The title also creates a nice rectangular shape. Finally, by scale the title larger than the author’s name and “a novel”, Kidd also created hierarchy in the book cover of the most important parts of the cover.

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn Published 1989 Fiction novel about a family that uses drugs to genetically manipulate humans.

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Bio:

“Much is to be gained by eBooks: ease, convenience, portability. But something is definitely lost: tradition, a sensual experience, the comfort of thingy-ness, a little bit of humanity.”

Chip Kidd was born in 1964 and ever since he was a kid, he has a passion for comic books, more specifically Batman. This love for this character never outgrew and has been his “gateway to graphic design”. Kidd went to Pennsylvania State University, and right as he got out of college, he was hired as a junior assistant to Knopf publishing house, and is still working there 27 years later.

Today, Chip is recognized as an author and designer with an AIGA award. He has written 2 novels, a graphic novel and a collection of Batman toys since the 40’s. He is also most well-known for his design for the Jurassic Park novels. Kidd has also been featured in many TED talks, interviews and projects with DC Comics. In his newest book, Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design, that came out in 2013, he provides insight towards his creative process and validates that devices such as color, cropping, texture, scale and type do not necessarily make a piece abstract. He also details stories about his life and experiences in design.

Zevelakis, Spyros. “Beautiful Covers: An Interview With Chip Kidd – Smashing Magazine.” Smashing Magazine. N.p., 19 Feb. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

“Chip Kidd Quotes.” Chip Kidd Quotes (Author of The Cheese Monkeys). N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

Stuart. “Chip Kidd’s TED Talk, Work, Quotes & Biography.” Inkbot Design. N.p., 27 May 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

“Chip Kidd | Penguin Random House Book Designer.”

Chip Kidd. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

“Designing Books Is No Laughing Matter. OK, It Is.” Chip Kidd:. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

“Spotlight On: Chip Kidd | Tory Daily.” Tory Daily Official Tory Burch Blog RSS. N.p., 20 Aug. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

“Chip Kidd: I’m Obsessed with Batman.” Vimeo. Design INdaba, 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

“Chip Kidd.” Famous Graphic Designers. N.p., n.d.

Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

“Chip Kidd Discusses the Book Jacket for Haruki Murakami’s Forthcoming Novel 1Q84.” Knopf Doubleday Chip Kidd Discusses the Book Jacket for Haruki Murakamis Forthcoming Novel 1Q84 Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.

“Charles Kidd.” Pabook Libraries. Pennsylvania State University, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.

Citations “Life is a lifelong assignment that must be constantly analyzed, clarified, figured out, and responded to appropriately.”

“Even if I wasn’t a Japanophile, I would still use chopsticks all the time, for all kinds of cuisine. Especially salads, which can be unwieldy on a fork. The cultural difference between selecting your food and stabbing it is symbolic of the quiet simplicity of the East versus the blunt directness of the West.” - Chip Kidd