Last night I met Chip Kidd in Chatanooga, at his lecture to AIGA 50. I’ve admired his work for years, I read his novel The Cheese Monkeys and his retrospective Book One, and I own several other books just because he designed the covers. I’m a huge Chip Kidd fan, and I was thrilled to see him in person.
So why am I scowling in this photo? Dunno. Kidd even looks a bit apprehensive as he autographs his novel along its trimmed edges. His glance says, “Where is Museum security?” Oh, and why am I holding onto the lectern so deliberately? Looks like I’m trying to block his escape. Anyway, the lecture was great despite my scowl. Chip was warm, pragmatic, atttitude-free, sarcastic, and funny as hell.
A few of my favorite comments from Kidd’s chat, whose title was a crosword puzzle clue: A Number of People.”
“The reason I’m a designer and not a fine arteest, is that if you give me a blank canvas and tell me do whatever I want, I will sit there. Then I will cry. Then I will drink.”
“Blue sky, blue sky?”
[On the premature obituary of the book] “Recorded music reproduces the live performance, so the recording format doesn’t matter. Records give way to cassettes give way to CDs and MP3s. A book, on the other hand, records the author’s words as they were written. And it is the most efficient way (with ink, paper, and bound pages) do deliver them. No one is buying the Sony book reader. Besides, a generation of kids has fallen in love with Harry Potter since the ebook was invented, and they stood in line to buy the book. That should tell us something.
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