Chip Kidd

I was introduced to Chip Kidd in Typography a few weeks ago. We watched a talk he did and I was really intrigued by his designs. I did more research and loved his work.

Kidd works for Penguin Random House designing book covers. As a book lover, I frequently judge a book by its cover, everyone does. Even people who say they don’t judge books by their covers do to some level, it’s just natural. However, I had never really thought about the designer behind the book cover. I think it’s really interesting.

As a book cover designer, Kidd has to take a book written by someone else and create a design that is going to capture that. Not only that, he has to work with the author to create something they will like. The cover has to capture the audience. An author is reliant on the designer creating something that will capture their audience and make them want to read the book.

Kidd looks at problems and asks how they can be solved. He uses an example like exit signs to demonstrate. Exit signs are almost always in all red caps. It’s not decorative or pretty, but it solves the problem and is effective. Kidd said, “Problem solving doesn’t always have to look pretty, sometimes it just simply has to get the job done in the most expedient way.”

I have seen myself trying to stay away from the simple or easy options when I am problem solving in design. I often think design should be complicated and look pretty. This is something I am working on in my designs an want to get better at.