Good is dead

Good is dead” is the web address of Chip Kidd, the Leonardo da Vinci of the book cover world: his masterpieces even spill over to various pop art mediums such as posters for theater plays and CD covers. Last year, he designed and wrote a book on his works called Chip Kidd Book One: Work: 1986-1996. As you flip through its visual spreads, you realize that, in the era of Chip Kidd, to be just a good book jacket designer is to be as good as dead. That’s because, as whimsical as his creations are, Kidd is dead serious about design. In his “Typo Berlin” lectures, viewable on YouTube, you learn that his New York wit mocks everything and anything that gets in his way, even if it’s himself. Yet, as he as talks about groundbreaking layouts for covers, there is certainly a sacredness that he passionately covets about the whole creative process and its details. His words, just like the text in the books he converts into cover material, are filled with atomic energy. This vibrant fervor is then translated to magnificent works that leave wordsmith authors such as Michael Crichton in a state of barbaric babble. Crichton’s fax to Chip Kidd on his design for Rising Sun was “Wow! F••••king Fantastic Jacket.” After such praise, need we say more?

Mini Chip Kidd gallery

To do this, you have to be Chip Kidd, who, like a renegade, assaults the senses and leaves consumers blind to the billion other books in the store. This process is indeed difficult because Kidd himself prefers to show rather than explain his book jackets. Nevertheless, I will attempt to curate a mini tribute gallery that will hopefully dissect the mad mind that is inside Chip Kidd. I know this may be impossible, working with a subject whose motto is “Live every day of your life as if you’re dying of a contagious disease that turns people into zombies when you bite them.” However, I am hopeful that I may get this right because I am at least sure that I have indeed been bitten by his zombie disease.

Exhibit one: Super subtle

Chip Kidd was commissioned to reinvent the logo of Superman for All Star Superman 1. As you compare the logos, you see that he trims away the 1950s tackiness without losing its futuristic, iconic feel through using a zooming “up, up and away” VF sans medium italic font.

“If Superman is flying away, then Batman should be crashing down”  — Chip Kidd

Exhibit two: Know the story inside out

Chip Kidd’s brilliance lies in being described as a “true reader.” He truly understands the underlying context of his assignments. As a result, he was able to work out the design for Jurassic Park, one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and a version of the New Testament, the greatest non-fiction book of all time.

For Jurassic Park, his inspiration for the x-ray skeleton was to communicate Michael Crichton’s sci-fi realism and the key element of prehistoric DNA.

Before Mel Gibson’s film, Kidd created this graphic image of an expiring, bloody Christ staring to the reader — to evoke the true meaning of his Passion — yet still awake, to hint at his resurrection.

Exhibit three: Magpie Mode

Chip Kidd likes to term his process as “the magpie method,” which is to pick up images from the environment like the bird and breathe a new context into them. Using a Japanese milk mascot, he was able to convey the mischievousness of the young protagonist and the title itself.

Exhibit four: Steal from yourself

 .....and work on the project by the same author.

Exhibit five: Beat yourself to death

James Ellroy is best known for his crime pulp novels such as L.A. Confidential. Chip Kidd’s first design for his books in 2001 was already “bloody” great. However, Ellroy’s pulp style really leapt off the page when Kidd found artist Thomas Allen who deconstructs crime noir paperbacks.

Exhibit six: Busy is bad, simply communicate

Dry is a story about an alcoholic in denial of his addiction. Thus, it would be a no-brainer to depict the cover in denial, too, by making it appear wet. The same is true with fraud. The cover teases and communicates the furious intensity of a person who has been swindled by fraud.

Noteworthy Books

Here are some recent outstanding book covers I found in National Bookstore that made me say “I don’t care if it is a book on quilts or quantitative physics, I want it on my shelf.”

Gollancz Science Fiction Books

I am not heavily into science fiction, because I often find its intended seriousness to be silliness. However, I applaud Gollancz for designing sci-fi books without any trace of out-of-this-world geekiness. I also find their future classic covers to be very gutsy for not having the title nor the author name displayed on the cover.

Vintage Books

Vintage Books lives up to its name by churning out covers that are of high quality. You just have to visit the bookstore and look at the Beatnik-inspired Haruki Murakami series covers. Recently, they did a mind-blowing job by convincing me that I could read Gulliver’s Travels and almost fooled me into believing I could love Crime and Punishment. They ingeniously did this by selling a theme set of one classic together with a modern classic. The bundled books were sold with theme covers that matched when placed together.

We’ve got you covered

If you still don’t believe the branding power of book covers, just check out how our friend  pareng Harry Potter has been sold in England with an adult edition.

(Harry Potter 7 Adult Cover) (Harry Potter 7 US cover)

Chip Kidd Book One: Work: 1986-1996 (Book one Cover)

Website: www.goodisdead.com

Gollancz Publishers

Website: www.orionbooks.co.uk

Vintage Publishers

Website: www.randomhouse.com/vintage/

Chip Kidd’s book is available on Amazon.com. The other books featured can be found in your nearby National Bookstore.

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