Win One for the Chipper

So did Chip Kidd disappoint at the International Festival of Authors? Heavens, no. The man was in his element. He must be a blast at parties, because this guy loves an audience. He is as diverse, as dynamic as delicious in person as all the many book covers he has designed in his career.

My date for the evening was the adorable cartoon/design chum Johnny, who is just as, if not more delightful than The Chipper, and in fact has a unique talent for attracting the most bizarre of characters in the city of Toronto.

So before the event started, I was telling Johnny about this other book cover design guy that I had heard talk before, a certain Mr. Bill Douglas from The Bang, who is our resident Canadian book design guru. So I'm telling Johnny about how funny this Douglas guy is, and who ends up introducing Chip? Good ol' Billy-boy. It was a book-design love-fest night for me, I tell you.

Chip showed the crowd many covers he had designed in the past couple years, including the ones that the publishers nixed. It was interesting to see how he came to his final choice in some situations (often in a state of desperation, because the publishers would veto so many of his ideas, and he would say to himself, "I'm going to lose this fucking job". Yeah. Right, Chip. They're gonna fire you).

One of the best stories of the night, I think, was when a woman in the audience asked him about the placement of the two L's in Daniel Libeskind's recent memoirs. Apparently Kidd did not enjoy the process of designing this particular cover, mainly because he was forced to use these two specific photographs for the design, and quite frankly, both photos are really stupid and uninspiring. But Chip made it work.

So to answer the woman's question, Chip leaned into the microphone and said in a deep and haunting voice, something like "You clever woman." See for yourself. Apparently neither Libeskind nor the publishers noticed it.

You might be wondering why I drew Chip Kidd quoting the Wicked Witch of the West. That's because was well as being a very talented deisgner, The Chipper can also do really good impressions of said witch, and while reciting psalms, I might add. Who knew?

I asked Kidd to share some of his experiences while designing the book Peanuts: The Art of Charles Schulz. He stopped being a ham for a few mintues, and told a lovely warm story about his experiences working with Schulz's widow and his family, about going into Schulz's studio, and about how much he loved Schulz's work, and how he wished he could have met him.

One of my favourite book-cover designers talking about one of my favourite cartoonists. It don't get much better than that.

Comments

[mcs]

Hmm.. It seems October is the month of missing interesting talks. Missed Chester Brown at Mac, missed Spiegelman now Kidd. This would be the point you tell me that I've missed Ware speak, or I won't be able to make it.

[patricia]

Don't give up the ghost yet. I haven't heard any rumblings about Ware. But I must confess, he's not someone I would search out. But I do try and keep my cartoon/design radar up at all times. It does help living in Toronto, I must say.

If you are a fan at all of Lynn Jonston, I happen to know that she will be signing books at The Different Drummer in Burlington in November, but I can't remember the exact date at this moment in time.

[michele]

No screaming children this time? Or did Kidd scare them off? I purchased a book once simply because it was beautiful looking....it was of course a Kidd cover.

Ohh, I LOVE Different Drummer bookstore. It is wonderful, simply wonderful.

[Robot Johnny]

adorable? *blush*

[Angela]

I know this is a pretty old post...found it doing some research on Chip Kidd. Forgive me for being dense, but I don't get the L placement thing on the Libeskind book. I'm just not seeing it. Spell it out for me? :/

[patricia]

Sorry for confusing you, Angela. I should update that post. In an earlier design of the book, the two L's were placed directly over Libeskind's eyes. Chip's way, I think, of saying 'fuck you' to Libeskind, who has quite the ego. My understanding is that eventually the design 'flaw' was noticed, and a new edition of the book was created, with L's lower down.