Chip Kidd: Partially Exposed
by Bennett Holzworth, (7 comments)
Just when you think that Chip Kidd couldn’t get any more outrageous with his book design … he goes and design’s outside the cover of his own monography
How far beyond the edges did he go? How about pages that are twice the size of the book cover. The concept I would assume is something like this… The book couldn’t contain all of the content and Chip is larger than life. This fits in with the audacity of calling your life’s work, Book One. I would expect no less from Chip. One thing that I really appreciate is the size reference of his new book to the size of the average fiction book (his specialty). It pays tribute to what has made him famous, while allowing to show work at a large scale. I look forward to looking, reading and seeing how well this piece works as a functioning book. No matter what, I’m sure it will be entertaining.
Comments (7)
Adrian said:
It really bugs me that his website is “Good is Dead.” Other than Cheese Monkeys, has anyone seen another place where he talks about or explains that phrase?
Posted on October 26, 2005
DC1974 said:
Perhaps its a play on the old aphorism “good is the enemy of great” combined with a play on God is Dead?! Just thinking out loud here.
Posted on October 27, 2005
Simanek said:
He is saying that what has been considered ‘good’ design in the past he doesn’t consider ‘good’ anymore. Perhaps if what is good looks like something that already exists, then the term ‘good’ really means ‘familiar, accepted and agreed upon by people that know as correct’. (Such as the ‘appropriate’ use of ligatures and em and en dashes, for example.) He’s a self-proclaimed avant-garde designer. He’s saying that he’s not just a ‘good’ designer, but a designer that is making something altogether new and different that, to the uneducated eye, might not look ‘good’. Pretty standard Modern art philosophy. Most likely he’s big in Japan.
Posted on October 27, 2005
leMel said:
Um…he’s branding.
Posted on October 27, 2005
Adrian said:
I guess that makes sense. In the context of Cheese Monkeys, it seemed to be a more dark and subversive message. (We debate that here.) Just as a web address, it doesn’t give us much context to understand what it means. I guess the reason it bothers me is because I don’t think of the word “good” to mean “average.” For me, something is either good or it isn’t. Married with that is a moral commitment to strive for good (as opposed to evil) in everything I do. In that context, I find the statement “Good is Dead” to be personally offensive. I guess it shouldn’t bother me if Kidd doesn’t mean it that way. Still, I would like to hear that definition from Kidd before I accept it off as a “good is the enemy of great” statement.
Posted on October 28, 2005
DC1974 said:
Simanek seems to have it right based on the Cheese Monkey review at Eye. Although, I would add that Kidd is big here too. And certainly among design students coming out right now. I’d also ad that I’m not sure that you understand Japanese culture really well, but that’s another thought entirely.
Posted on October 28, 2005
Bennett said:
I think the term “good” can be very easily interchanged with average. i.e. “Good enough” I agree that it is more of a statement about being “Great” and not just good. I can’t say that I love the phrase. “good is dead”, but I doubt Chip really cares what most people think. He would probably rather ruffle up some feathers and get a discussion going. Make people scratch their heads. I’m not sure if it makes the most sense for a website, but I wasn’t offended. At least when you go to chipkidd.com it redirects you to goodisdead.com. Chip Kidd is predictably unpredictable.
Posted on October 28, 2005