SubscribeThe Learners Paperback in The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review. March 13, 2009.The paperback edition of The Learners (available now
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Chip Bids John Updike Adieu
Slate Magazine. January 29, 2009.Editors and writers remember John Updike over at Slate Magazine, and Chip is among them (and so, for that matter, is J. D. McClatchy):
Working with and for Mr. Updike was an honor and a treat, and because he was so prolific—not only in quantity but in type of book (novel, poems, essays, criticism)—there were many different kinds of design scenarios. One extreme was his habit of drawing up by hand the entire cover layout, including type specs, which I or another of us in the art department would then execute. On the other end of the spectrum, he would occasionally let us do whatever we wanted. And then everything in between.
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The BDR on Being Digital
The Book Design Review. December 10, 2008.Joseph Sullivan over at The Book Design Review covers, so to speak, an oldie but a goody from Chip’s portfolio (and one that hasn’t yet made it into the Work. section of this site, but never fear: it’ll be there soon enough), Nicholas Negroponte’s Being Digital (1995):
I was lucky enough to live in London in ’94 and ’95, and I picked this up in a bookshop in Camden Town. I had no idea who Chip Kidd was, and only a marginal interest in graphic design at that point. But even I knew, back in ’95, that this was a pretty sexy way to package ideas.
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Graphic Designer Chip Kidd
TIME Magazine. October 24, 2008.Chip hits the pages of TIME Magazine in the run-up to the publication of Bat-Manga!:
I’ve seen pictures of your place and you have tons of collectibles. What the oddest one you have?
There’s a water gun from England, which is a figural water gun of Batman basically bent over…I don’t know how far you want me to go with this.No, keep going.
I was amazed that this thing got made. It’s legit, too, not a knockoff. His arms are behind his back. The water comes out of his mouth and the trigger of the gun is basically…what you think it would be. The plug you pull out and put more water in is, well, the other end.
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Real Headliners
The New York Post. July 25, 2008.From the true barometer of fame, The Post‘s Page Six:
ONE of The Post’s famous headlines is now a rock band. Novelist and designer Chip Kidd was so taken by our Aug. 27, 2006, headline, “Artbreaking” - about famed quadriplegic artist Chuck Close’s battle with a condo project threatening to block his studio’s sunlight - he adapted it for the name of his group.
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The 2008 TIME 100 Finalists
TIME Magazine. April 17, 2008.Okay, so, Chip is a finalist for the 2008 TIME 100, TIME magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in, well, the world. This is the ‘con’ portion of Chip’s mini-profile on the TIME 100 page:
As is often the case with replicable success, Kidd’s book-jacket dominance is provoking backlash. (Updike has called his stuff “monstrously ugly.”) Soon, he’ll be the orthodoxy some new Kidd will rebel against.
Is it just me, or is that just as much a pro as it is a con? Either way, please go vote for Chip. Barack Obama, Bono, Steven Colbert, George Clooney, The Pope, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are pretty stiff competition, ya know?