Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd
Graphic designer, editor, and writer

He's written two novels about his life in art school, designed numerous great book covers, including his own books, and even sang for his band—Artbreak. What can Kidd not do?

Chip Kidd is an associate art director at Knopf, an imprint of Random House. On an average year, Kidd designs around 75 book covers; designed more than 1,000 book covers; all of them unique, sometimes weird, and definitely interesting. He has won multiple awards for his designs.
Kidd tries to approach his designs in the non-literal way. If the title is "Dry," he makes the cover look wet; " Almost making him sound like a rebel—doing what opposite of what's expected. Maybe it is a good rule for design.

He works with John Gall, who referred Kidd as “The Rock Star of graphic design" and is equally a great designer.



Book cover design is an art itself. A good cover design is defined differently by different designers, but usually the cover shows or even enhances the essence of the book in a unique and surprising way that maybe pushes the design envelope a bit.
Should we judge the book by its cover? It's debatable. But if the content of the book is good, it doesn't hurt to have a good cover design.
Personally, if I see an interesting cover, it grabs my attention and I'll read what the book's about. I'll show some examples above.

I stumbled upon this website and I think it's great.
It shows bookcovers (same books) designed by both Chip Kidd and John Gall. The left side shows bookcovers designed by Chip Kidd (hard covers) and right side by John Gall (paperbacks). I think Gall's work compliments Kidd's work.

http://www.designrelated.com/inspiration/view/Karen/entry/2166