One of the best additions to the book are the letters from various authors that he has designed for. He states that he encouraged the authors to be honest. The evidence shows that they listened. While there are a few that were a little over-the-top gushing, most of the letters were honest and heart-felt. At least one author even blames a Chip Kidd cover for one of his book’s poor sales, which Chip vehemently denies. The inclusion of these letters does add more validity to the objectivity of this book. After reading Rick Poynor’s article “Battle of the Big Books” (reprinted in Looking Closer 4) I’ve never experienced a monograph the same way. I’m not sure I totally agree with Rick’s view that a monograph should be written and designed by someone other than the artist, but he makes some very convincing arguments. Chip addresses some of these concerns in the beginning of the book. “It’s been said that most graphic design monographs are adventures in narcissism and self-absorbtion. That is certainly the case here, but I’m hoping it’s as much about the books and the authors as it is about me. (I know nice try). To this end, I have asked several writers I’ve worked with over the years to comment, in the hopes that their insight might be helpful.” One thing is for certain, when a famous designer does a monograph it makes for an interesting experience. Why not let Chip design his own book, and let the historians of the future compile additional books and writings on him? It is interesting that Chip has already had a monograph of sorts written by Veronique Vienne for the series called Monographics which is edited by none other than Rick Poynor. If you want just a brief, easy to read overview of Chip’s work, I would suggest reading the Monographics book. If you want the expanded, insider view of Mr. Kidd, I would make the jump to Book One. With that said, I think that a few things would have been handled better if someone else would have been the “author” of this project.

The work was for the most part displayed at or as close to full size as possible. This is great, but much of the work is butted up to other work in what at times becomes a confusing puzzle of sketches, covers and text. It would have been wonderful to see more of the the finished books actually photographed by Chip’s long time collaborator Geoff Spear (of course all those photos would surely have blown the budget). I always came away with a better idea of how the design actually worked when there was a photo of the finished piece. The type was also not the easiest to read, which surprised me with the respect that he has for text. Most of the copy was set in reversed out Twentieth Century. Those funny question marks never ceased to throw me off while reading this text. One other problem I had with the text was that at least once, Chip’s description overlapped the featured work, causing some confusion as to what was jacket copy and what was Kidd’s description of the work.

The elaborate tricks that we have come to expect from design monographs (i.e. Make It Bigger, Made You Look and House Industries) and the books that Chip authors was surprisingly vacant outside of the half-size cover. No printing on the binding or fancy overleafs were there to drive the printer crazy. The cover itself was a clever concept but it would have been fun to see him try a couple more experiments. Maybe this is Chips way of saying that he has pushed book design as far as he can, or more likely, he was staying within the budget. With that said, I am reviewing the soft cover, so the hard back might have just been that much more impressive.

This book didn’t ignore the design crowd by just focusing on the literary world. The insights into the design and writing of The Cheese Monkeys was fun to read about. The genesis of it, the inspiration, the coming sequel, the basis for the characters, the rumored six figure book deal he made, the Chris Ware collaboration… I find it fascinating to see what was behind such a widely discussed book. The inclusion of sketches and rejected ideas of other books was also invaluable for the designer. I also found it strangely comforting to read a book of a famous designer that does the computer work himself. It seems I continually hear of famous designers that never touch the computer. Although this fact doesn’t detract from those designers, it is easy to identify with a designer that toils with the same programs that I do. His mentions of Quark (hopefully he has switched to InDesign) and Photoshop show that he does a great deal of the computer work himself. It was also interesting to see some of the trends he fell into along with the rest of the design world when the computer was still so new.

I found that there were parts of this book that I won’t appreciate as much as others. As my personal library fills up with art, advertising and design books, I rarely find time to read fiction (sad, I know). So a good amount of the work he has designed is going to have a completely different relevance to an avid Knopf reader. While the author letters are interesting from the designer/client angle, they will be pure gold for someone familiar with that particular author. This book does pay a great tribute to the writing of the authors and shows that he does truly appreciate the very work that inspires him. I often found myself wanting to go pick up several of the books after reading Chip’s brief description.

With Chip’s ever increasing influence in the book design and graphic novel industries, it will be very interesting to see where he goes from here. He seems so happy at Knopf and why shouldn’t he be? He can work for other publications as much as he wants, and still come home to a company that obviously has a great deal of respect for design. In the advertising and design world I can’t imagine a firm with such a laid back approach to freelance work. I wonder what opportunities lie ahead for someone that is taking on editorial (graphic novels) and writing roles outside of his design. What will Chip Kidd: Book Two look like and will we have to wait another twenty years? This book is equal part ode to design and writing. It is obvious that you can’t separate the words and the pictures from the Kidd. Those are my thousand words, but I suggest you get the whole picture.

Note: Photography by Bennett