by Drew Martin
I just finished watching the Princeton University online lecture SIGNALS GraphicChipDesignKidd. Chip Kidd is an author, editor and graphic designer, best known for his book covers for Knopf where he has worked in design since 1986 and is now the associate art director. Kidd is a captivating, colorful and articulate speaker. This lecture is a must-see for graphic designers; he speaks about time and sequence, color crescendo, making typography "look like it is in denial," the fine line between minimalism and boredom, and most importantly figuring out your idea and concept before trying to make it look good or leading the project with style in mind. The six-finger image here is from the cover of Augusten Borroughs' Possible Side Effects. While discussing the approach for Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red, he talks about incorporating 16th century Turkish court paintings and generalizes about such details, "We want to present them in a way that will provide them a narrative that is applicable and relative to what is going on in the book." Kidd taught Senior Graphic Design Portfolio at the School of Visual Arts in New York for six years and seems to have the best of both worlds - the tools computers can offer but also the skills of a hands-on, old-school designer.