good gravy, i love chip kidd. this book is like bookporn; me drooling over every cover, because i am someone who is completely influenced by covers - i cant even help it. i have multiple books-by-the-same-author even if ive never read the author just because they consistently have great covers. i just buy them every time they write a new one, and every time i think - "man, i should read one of them - they might not even be that good", but that is a problem working in the book biz - the seeing an...

(4.5 stars) Chip Kidd is full of himself. But, he knows it and doesn’t care one whit. That’s how geniuses are. And Chip is definitely a genius...a genius at designing book covers. Until I read this book, I paid little attention to book covers. Either I liked a book cover or I didn’t. Sometimes I loved or hated a cover but I didn’t think much about why. Now, I will analyze every book cover I see. For overall design, placement of the images, colors, type face...everything. This book has shown me h...

After I picked up Suite Française, I happened to look at the cover-design credit and recognized the name Chip Kidd. After a moment's reflection as to the source of my familiarity with the designer, I walked over to my bookshelf and picked up a volume from my collection of Osamu Tezuka's Buddha. Sure enough, Kidd had designed the covers for the entire series (incidentally, I found the design one part frustrating and one part inspiring, as the spines line up nicely and thematically but the half-ja...

Quite a behind-the-scenes description of the making, or really the envisioning of book covers. Everything has a story, quite often a reasonable one based on the book being covered (but not always!). Nice as a coffee-table book, but the odd half-hardcover, size and heft makes this ergonomically challenging to read. I'm heartened that my daughter, considering taking a design class in high school, is attracted to the book - the images, the stories, and the design of the pages. With Kidd explaining,...

It's like the best crack for people who've ever loved graphic design, especially as it pertains to book jackets.

Even if you've never heard of Chip Kidd, you've almost undoubtedly seen his work. He is the most sought-after book jacket designer, responsible for some of the most distinctive book covers of recent history (Jurassic Park and 1Q84, for example).Judged on the content alone, the book designs, this merits 5 stars from anyone interested in graphic design. Kidd brings very little preconceived style to his designs, letting each one be different and inventive. Taken as a whole, the common thread in his...

Recently I saw Chip Kidd: Book Two at a bookstore. With a some basic book-numbering-subtraction-deduction, I realized that I needed to find this book first. It is a tome. A beast (of many colors). And every page is something new. It reminded me of much of what I had read between 1986-2006...but more often, all the things that I need to add to my list and/or *finally* read. Most of America and a large part of the world knows Chip Kidd's work...even if they don't know it was his work. They at leas...

Solid design reference ✔Worthwhile for experienced designers to read ✔Pretentious designer author ✔Most notable thing - the book is primarily about book cover designs and has one of the most impractical book covers ever that has not stood up (literally) well over time

Amazing, it goes beyond boundaries and breaks all rules about books. It's different.

I've read Book One and Book Two. Basically, Chip Kidd is my favorite visual artist of all time...because he designs the most beautiful book covers I have ever seen.

AN ANTHOLOGY OF CHIP KIDD’S INGENIOUS BOOK COVERSThe world’s best book cover designer is Chip Kidd. Kidd has designed hundreds of best-selling books, and continues to amaze readers today. His designs are marked by sympathetic creativity. In his cover designs there is usually at least one unexpected element but it is always in the service of what the book is about. The better you know a book, the better the cover works; at the same time, knowing nothing as a mere browser, his covers call you to s...

Chip Kidd is the Monet, Picasso, and Warhol of book design. I say this not from a position of authority—my design history knowledge is marginal—but of amazement. With great stylistic breadth meted out over thousands of covers, proof of quality and quantity, Kidd interprets the unnamable heart of every book he designs for into a perfect illustrative adornment. The collection itself is printed masterfully, with glossy full-color renderings of nearly everything he's designed in the last twenty year...

After reading Kidd's semi-autobiographical novels, it was fun to get a parallel view of how his schooling and friendships led to his current book cover success. There's a little biographical background here, but mostly photos of covers, with commentary by both Kidd and sometimes the authors of the books. He gives ample credit to collaborators, and shows rejected ideas beside the final product so that the reader can get a feel for the process too. I'm in awe of the huge amount of reading he has d...

If you're a book designer, Chip Kidd is what you aspire to (though you know you'll never get to that level). He is the top of the heap, the "rock star" of the profession, and he's even a Jeopardy! answer. You'll probably never get to that level. But flipping through Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006 sure makes you want to try. This collection of Kidd's covers, side-by-side (as many as there can be; he's designed over 1000 so far), provides a great deal of insight into how he works. There is a...

Absolutely stellar!Chip Kidd's star has been on the rise for a few years now. You can't walk down an isle of fiction without seeing his handywork catching your eye.Kidd has achieved that place that all cover designers long to be. It's a lofty one where you are given enough room to really try some unorthodox things. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.This book covers Kidd's work up until 2005. It's fun to read about the process of putting these covers together. And even more fun to read...

"'In St. Paul, Minnesota a young man told me he had bought several of my books. When I thanked him he said, "Oh, it has nothing to do with you. I collect Chip Kidd covers."'" Author Edmund White's bookstore anecdote perfectly captures the attraction of Chip Kidd on full view in this collection of twenty years of his book covers, mostly for Knopf. The work collects books well known and not, both early and final versions along with background on the creative and often political processes in book j...

When this book first came out, I raced to the bookstore to get a the hardcover. I allowed myself only a few pages a day so as to savor the design process of each and every cover inside. Chip Kidd is wonderful for putting together a collection of his work like this. As a designer, I could immediately start to see his influence on the covers I was working on (in a field that's much less inspiring!). He helped me push some boundaries and get more experimental. I feel like reading this has made me a...

Cripes. This book is effing enormous. It's also awkward to read, because half of it is hard cover and the other half is paperback and flops all around. Don't get me wrong; it looks cool, but the dimensions make the it difficult to read in bed. Or on a plane. Or most places that lack a well-supported table. Anyway, Book One compiles twenty years of Chip Kidd's best book cover designs. The authors of those books submit their opinion of Chip's work, so it makes for a nice, dense look at the design

A few years ago, my then-girlfriend-now wife noticed a peculiar book buying issue that plagued me. If a book I enjoyed came out with a better cover I would then try to off load the former copy. Once and awhile this could be overlooked. Maybe even considered "upgrading". Thankfully, Chip Kidd's work has been collected so, at least my enjoyment of his cover artwork can be enclosed in one book. Time spent stalking used book stores new arrival shelves can now be spent staring at these pages and wond...

i didnt really read this book but i did try and look at it. i wonder, is there something that i am missing? i hear so much about this man's book jackets and then when i see all of the ones he designed in this book i recognize many of them as being covers that i thought "why would they choose this design b/c it looks cheap?" not my style / taste at all. but it is a nicely laid out book if you were to like his designs so the rating is more for chip kidd's cover designs - not the book itself.

It's particularly cool to read this extraordinary book as a librarian --so many of the books covers inside are familiar and recognizable as the popular works. I'm purely amazed at how this book, which could come off as Chip Kidd's scrapbook of celebrity encounters instead reads as a humble offering. It's probably the best chronicle of the last 20 years of graphic design in the united states and it comes across as modest, approachable and endlessly fascinating.

I love reading about creative people's processes; how did they figure to do this, or draw that, or make things that color? Here is a thick tome, full of Chip's work, and paragraph upon paragraph of him explaining the whys and hows, with some notes from the authors themselves. This was a treat to read and to gawk at. Stretching what could be conventionally done with type and photographs and stock images, Kidd did a ton with a great eye towards the material. Very much enjoyed this book.

This guy has rethought the book in every way that challenges a print designer. He is to book jackets as a tailor is to a suit...and a really good one controls every aspect of the design to create a signature cut. This is one of the few design books really worth owning because of how freaking undeniably interesting the artwork is.

Love love love love love. After reading, spent an hour combing through my bookshelves to find Chip Kidd cover. I'm excited to contrast this book with Penguin by Design A Cover Story 1935-2005, a book I'm pretty sure Chip Kidd would want to kick to the curb.

A sumptious review of Chip Kidd's book-related graphic design work, with lots of testimonials from authors and designers that he's worked with over the years. It actually introduced me to a number of books that I probably otherwise wouldn't have read. And it looks spiffy on the cofeetable too.

Chip Kidd is a personal hero for me. He's completely changed the way books are designed and I'm not going to lie, I do judge a book by it's cover. This is a fantastic way to dive head first into the world of book design and the life of Chip Kidd. It's also an impressive coffee-table book.

I loved leafing through this book. I probably went through this book 8-10 times before I even began reading. Being a book designer, I enjoyed reading Chip's thoughts and commentary on his design choices. Very insightful and inspiring.

Very comprehensive source for Chip Kidd designs, created by the master himself. I adore the full-bleed images and the format of the book, and it's a great source of info on the design master himself without being laborious to read. Definitely recommend it.

What an amazing guy! I had no idea who Chip Kidd was or that he was responsible for elevating book jacket design to a high art, but there's no going back to ignorance once you've been exposed to what is essentially his funny, impressive, and very readable graphic design memoir.

I loved everything about this book: the unusual physical bookness, the collage of images, the witty text. It made me want to a) join a Chip Kidd fan club and b) drop my current social science career and start designing books.