How I became a book cover designer
Chip Kidd’s art graces biggest titles in the biz.
Our series “How I became a …” digs into the stories of accomplished and influential people, finding out how they got to where they are in their careers. (Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
With a body of work spanning from designing the iconic cover of “Jurassic Park” to writing his own novels, Chip Kidd has worked with some of the most famous names in literature and cartoons. The words and designs of the TED speaker, book cover designer, author and editor have been seen around the world, and Kidd’s advice rings true: “Do it because you love it.”
USA TODAY caught up with Kidd.
Question: What’s the last book you read?
Chipp Kidd: Usually, I don’t have a lot of time to read books that I’m not designing for. I’d say right now the last book I read was “Killing Commendatore” by Haruki Murakami.
Q: What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done?
Kidd: I accepted an invitation from J.J. Abrams to visit the set of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and watched Carrie Fisher film scenes from about 5 feet away. I think it’s pretty cool. It’s obviously tragic given what happened.
Q: Who has been your biggest mentor?
Kidd: I’d say, certainly in school, it was this guy named Lanny Sommese. He was my main teacher in college, taught me a lot about the principles of graphic design and conceptual thinking. Certainly my boss and friend Carol Devine Carson, of over 30 years, is probably my biggest mentor at work.
In terms of working professionals whose work I just truly admire and learn from, I’d say Peter Saville. He still works today, but he was the art director and designer for Factory Records – so, Joy Division and New Order and that music of the Manchester scene in the late 70s and early 80s – his ability to seemingly start from scratch and not have a signature style is really informative to me.
Q: What does your career path look like?
Kidd: I majored in graphic design as an undergrad for four years at Penn State University, and this was right before computers were introduced – you’re talking ’82-’86. Basically, when I graduated my plan such as it was, was I wanted to go to New York City and get a job doing graphic design. Other than that I was completely open-minded and did a lot of interviewing around.
The first substantial job offer I got was to be assistant to the art director at Alfred A. Knopf Publishing, and that was the fall of 1986. The pay was terrible, but the work seemed interesting and my rent was cheap, so I thought, ‘all right, I’ll give this a shot for a year, year and a half and see what happens.’ It sort of just grew from there, and I will have been here for 32 years and counting.
Certainly a lot has happened since then, but I’m at the same place that I was, and I’m still assistant to the art director, technically, which is fine. It’s just that I’ve been able to sort of create my own sort of position in here in terms of not just designing book covers, but acquiring and editing books of comics, graphic novels.
Q: Do you have a project that sticks out to you?
Kidd: After 32 years there’s a zillion of them. I’d say, right now in terms of book jacket design, the body of work that I’ve been able to make for Haruki Murakami, and that’s been for over 23 years. I’ve published two novels, I’m working on a third one. I have a new book on Marvel Comics called “Marvelocity” that is just out now, which is the work of Alex Ross.
Q: What does a typical day look like for you?
Kidd: I’m sort of lucky, in that as long as I get the work done here that I need to get done, I can sort of make up my schedule as I need to. So, I’m not a morning person at all. I sort of rouse myself up out of bed and get my act together, and get into work hopefully before noon. Once I’m here I’m here, and I do what I need to do and I’ll work until eight or nine or whatever.
Last week, I was on the road with a Japanese cartoonist whom I publish named Gengoroh Tagame, who has a new graphic novel out called “My Brother’s Husband,” and it’s the second volume. I’m his editor and art director, so I was sort of just escorting him around San Francisco to various events.
I’m constantly juggling at least four or five things.
Q: What has been your biggest career high and your biggest career low?
Kidd: High: “Jurassic Park.” That will be the first line of my obituary, and I’m extremely proud of that. I have absolutely no regrets.
Low: There’s nothing where I think, oh my God, I’m so ashamed I did X or Y. There are books that you work on that you are hoping are going to do really well, but that’s not the same – that’s not saying ‘oh my God, I’m so ashamed of that.’ It’s just like saying, ‘well, we did our best and that didn’t work.’
Q: What has been the biggest lesson that you’ve learned during your career?
Kidd: Keep an open mind, develop a thick skin, and if you get a design rejected you really have to look at that as an opportunity to start over and do something better. I know that sounds very Pollyanna-ish, and sometimes you can and sometimes you can’t, but I think that’s just an important lesson in life.
Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
Kidd: Do it because you love it. Do it because you love reading and because you love books. I wouldn’t say do it for the money, because I’ve done quite well – I have no complaints – but it’s not the kind of graphic design that you go into to make a killing financially. If that’s what you want, I would suggest going into advertising. And, there’s nothing wrong with advertising, it’s just that it pays a lot more.