Charles Kidd, commonly known as Chip Kidd is a renowned graphic designer. He is an American who focuses on contemporary designs and best recognized for book cover designs, whereby he is a huge devotee of comic books (Baetens & Frey, 2014). Kidd was born on 12 th September 1964 in Shillington, Berks County located in Pennsylvania. He was heavily inspired and fascinated by American popular culture during his entire childhood. Hence his gateway into graphic design was solely comic books. Additionally , Superman and Batman populated his childhood memories. Chip went to Pennsylvania State University and successfully graduated with a degree in graphic design in 1986. After that , he has been a successful graphic designer, lecturer, book designer, musician, editor, and author.
Chip grew up and became a subordinate director of art, at the New York publishing house in Knopf. He started as a subordinate assistant in 1986 while he was freelancing for other firms and managed to produce at least 65 book jackets yearly. The companies that he was freelancing for were Amazon, HarperCollins, Farrar Straus, and Giroux, among others, whereby he designed graphic novels at Pantheon Book.
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He managed to get a collaboration with an American Cartoonist and editor in 2003. The partnership was focused on Art Spiegelman, which was solely on Jack Cole’s biography. It is commonly known as “Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Limits.” Jack Cole is a famous American cartoonist who is vastly known for his invention of comic superhero commonly known as Plastic Man. Some of the most famous authors and novelist of this generation have a cover concept or two that are created by Kidd. His clients include the likes of Dean Koontz, Mark Beyer, Alex Rose, and Frank Miller. His concept art was featured Jurassic Park novel by Michael Crichton (Crichton, 2012). Nevertheless, it is rumored that famous authors like Lisa Birnbach and Oliver Sacks have requested for his expertise to be featured in their books’ covers.
There is a variety of documentation that record Chip being asked about his creativity by some interviewers. During an interview in Inspirability by Matt Pashkow, he stated that he is inspired by the manuscript of the book or whatever the book features. Additionally, he explained his creative process in making a cover in the USA Today. The means usually start with him analyzing the work then he gives his ideas to the author who often has the final say thus making the process to be a logical starting point. He further states that he may or may not involve illustrations, photographers or anything that affects him during solving the problem at hand, which amounts to ‘visually solving a problem.' Thus, he can take up to six months to find a solution to a current problem.
Additionally, Kidd is often quoted downplaying the significance of cover designs. He is usually against the notion that a book’s cover will automatically lead to more sales (Tolja, 2014). The relationship between a book’s cover and sales is a concept that marketing departments of publishing houses tightly incline on, but it does not work like that. Kidd emphasizes that sales of a book usually arises from whether the book identifies with the public, which is focused on the content of the book. Therefore, the cover plays a small portion of the sales.
Kidd is a funny person who is self-deprecating when it comes to his work. One of his favorite statement is , “I piggy-backed my career on the backs of the authors, not the other way around .” The most recent example of this phrase is The Road, which is by Cormac McCarthy, whereby he states that he is the one who is lucky to be recognized for it and that Cormac McCarthy is unlucky to have him working on his cover. Consistently he is a fan of Batman, which is a comic book media. Additionally, he has designed, and written book covers for quite some DC comics journals like; The Complete History of Batman, Wonder Woman, The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days, Superman, and as mentioned earlier, Jack Cole and Plastic Man (Tolja, 2014).
Kidd is also known for designing Mythology, he wrote an exclusive Superman/Batman story, which was illustrated by Ross for the book. Batman comic was the first cover that Kidd ever noticed, he was three years at that time. He adds that the forms, colors, and design made Batman to be a brilliant design solution. His obsession with Batman is intense to a level that Veronique Vienne created an eponymous manuscript featuring Kidd in 2006, where she described Chip’s Batman fandom to be a baby’s obsession that has progressed to be a lasting adult passion. Therefore, his Batman fascination makes him be one of the World’s ultimate Batman connoisseurs (Tolja, 2014).
Kidd wrote a book, which he named Jackets that got a lot of critiques from various people of different cultural backgrounds. Publishers Weekly was among the American news magazine that commented on his book. The magazine pointed out that the book was unconventional, cunning, creepy, and striking. Additionally, the magazine stated that the book was designed in a way that captures the reader’s attention and makes them appreciate the cover. Most readers view the cover in two dimensions, which include it as part of literature and a separate form of art. Additionally, USA Today glorified his work in the graphic design of his book and termed him as the closest individual to be a successful rock musician in the designing industry. James Elroy, who is a known author, was also among the people who knew and appreciated his book, whereby he termed him as the ‘world’s greatest graphic designer (Tolja, 2014).
Chip Kidd is a novelist in addition to graphic designing. He unveiled his first novel in 2001. The novel is known as ‘The Cheese Monkeys’ that is a sole academic satire. The book revolves around state college art students. It narrates how those students were repeatedly bullied by their graphic designer instructor as they struggled to meet his demands. Consistently, it borrows a lot from Chip’s real-life experiences, which revolve around Penn State. After that , he wrote ‘The Learners’ in 2008, which focuses on the Milgram experiment and extends the metaphor for advertising. It is about how consumers are sometimes unwillingly fed by masked content which is portrayed during an advertisement. He then released ‘Batman: Death by Design’ in 2012. Due to the success of his novels and his contribution towards the graphic design industry, he was awarded an AIGA medal in 2014.
Kidd also ventured into the music industry, whereby in 2008, he initiated a new alternate and wave rock band. The band wrote and recorded music solely under their stage name that is commonly known as Artbreak. Kidd assumed the role of vocals, percussion , and songwriting . The group started off as a hobby, but Kidd wanted a serious project to develop out of it. Hence the team performed and is still performing across the United States from 2008. They have plans of recording their original songs to be featured on an album named Wonder ground (Crichton, 2012).
Kidd has roots in the field of animation, whereby in 2010, Chip joined forces with the writing staff of “ Batman: The Brave and the Bold ,” which is an animated series. His works were mostly focused on the episode “Bat-Mite Presents: Batman Strangest Cases!” As stated earlier he is a huge fan of Batman. Thus, the episode featured a portion that was deeply motivated by the Batman cartoon, which was being aired in the 1960s (Crichton, 2012).
In regards to talks, Chip Kidd has lectured at Princeton, Harvard, Yale, among other many institutions of higher learning. He has presented lectures at the 2012 Technology, Entertainment, and Design Conference , commonly known as TED (Kidd, 2012). A web video from the talk arose in regards to this particular conference . The video was named ‘ designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is” , which made over 1,660, 000 views and is still being viewed . He recently presented a lecture titled ‘Fail Better’ in Penn State.
In conclusion Chip, Kidd is a multi-talented individual. He mostly identifies himself as a graphic designer, but he is performing well in other fields such as music, animation, and lecturing. It is widely known that he is a huge fan of Batman. Fortunately, he had the chance to feature his graphic designing expertise on an episode of Batman. His works are featured on many covers of various novels that mostly contributed to his fame. As viewed from the cover books that he has done, his graphic designs are unique, and they quickly capture the reader’s attention. However, he is a self-depreciating person when it comes to his work.
References
Baetens, J. & Frey, (2014). The Graphic Novel: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press.
Crichton, M. (2012). Jurassic Park : A Novel . Ballantine Books.
Kidd, C. (2012, March). TED Chip Kidd: Designing Books is No Laughing Matter. OK, It is. [TED]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chip_kidd_designing_books_is_no_laughing_matter_ok_it_is#t-9080
Tolja, G. (2014). The Book of Stone: Architecture, Memory, and the Graphic Novel . R etrieved from http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/363/1/Tolja_Gorana_2014_MA_CADN_THESIS.pdf
