Within the world of book cover design (a world I inhabit for at least 40 hours a week), Chip Kidd is both admired and despised (I suspect that a lot of the animosity comes from a secret jealousy that we less-famous book cover designers don’t like to admit to or talk about). There is no disputing, though, that he is by far the most famous, the most rockstar of us all. Book cover design isn’t one of those things you just do here and there on a whim—most people I know who work in the field started out there, and will spend the majority of the duration of their careers there, too. This is especially true for those of us who, like Kidd, work in-house for a publishing company. A book cover designer doesn’t wake up one day and decide to start doing corporate identity packages at an ad agency (or, for that matter, book interiors—that’s a whole different world). I know people who have tried to leave the field, but they always come back eventually.
I think the next step for graphic designers is to figure out how to meaningfully generate their own content. That’s what I’ve found that I have been doing, and want to continue to do. Whether it’s a book, or whether it’s music, or a film, or whatever; I think it’s the natural growth, rather than just strictly working for a client all the time.
Kidd is really on to something with the above quote, and his point absolutely applies to every person working in the field of graphic design, regardless of their field of focus. Working in a creative position within a larger corporate environment can be difficult for a person who is visually expressive by nature. The further you get from the creative freedom of your college years, the more you become entirely directed towards satisfying an outside demand (whether it be from a publisher, and art director, or an author). I don’t think this is a simple as defining “Art” as a separate thing from “Design”; I think it’s about nurturing a part of yourself that will eventually die off completely unless you figure out how to generate that original content he’s talking about, even if it’s just for yourself. I know many, many graphic designers who have struggled with this idea for years.
Chip Kidd also has a FABULOUS apartment, which you can see some of in the video. He’s an avid collector of Batman and other comic book-related ephemera, and he definitely knows how to display that collection in a way that is both sophisticated and accessible. The New York Times ran a great article on Kidd and his home a couple of years ago. The Eileen Gray chairs are to die for, right?
By the way, my apologies to those who are seeing this post for a second time today (albeit in a different form). Technical difficulties and further thought required a total reposting!
20 Comments
Couldn’t agree more. Good read, thanks.
I worked on a book with Chip (outside and inside) and he was a complete dream to work with and we all ended up with big fat crushes on him. Total sweetheart.
I just love this post. I was thinking that it would be great to see some of the things that you have worked on and feel proud of.
Happy new year!
Hi there, thanks for posting this! Is this part of a series of videos? If so let me know how to find them, it would be cool to see more.
I was an ad designer for a newspaper for 10 years, which I know is perceived as kind of the bottom rung, grunt work level of graphic design, but I really enjoyed it most of the time, and felt lucky since I was able to get in and learn the software on the job without a college degree.
Last April my paper made the decision to lay off our entire art department and outsource the work to India. I’m sure you have heard about how newspapers are essentially dying, which is a truth that smacked me up side the head for sure! Anyway I made the decision to start my own business instead of trying to find another job. And while my business isn’t directly related to design, I do get to use some of my skills since I am selling online.
Maybe if I would have felt there were more opportunities in design for me I would have tried to stick with it, but like I said I’m “just a newspaper designer” with no degree, which doesn’t appeal to most agencies or publishers! You are lucky to be doing book design, I always thought that would be really fun!
Mitzi: Yes, this is part of a video series from Dwell magazine
For what it’s worth, I do know designers who are working in the industry that did not go to design school. Outside of a corporate setting, I don’t know how much a degree is really worth in terms of hireability — certainly not as much as real world experience and a kickass portfolio. Speaking of which, you can most definitely put together a portfolio of design work that’s not “real”! Good design and good concepts aren’t any less valid when they’re done for personal reasons or without pay.
Don’t let your past job or lack of a degree get in the way of working as a designer! Put together a great portfolio (online, if you like), and shop it around to see what happens. There’s always the option of working freelance, too — nobody is going to be checking for a degree if you’re not going to be a hired employee. :)
Great post! I totally agree with Anna about the degree issue. A good option to build your portfolio and gain contacts is to do pro-bono work for charitable organizations. I’ve done that and I feel they are often more open to your creative ideas since you are volunteering your time.
I have a question for you, Anna. I work for a publisher in Nashville primarily doing interior book design. I’ve only managed to do a few ‘crash’ covers b/c they send almost everything out-of-house to design firms. I never knew if that was typical or not, so I’m glad to hear you work in-house. Do you find that more publishers have in-house teams or use freelancers? I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of going freelance yet, but I question whether I’ll need to move to find right job.
To say that its impossible to leave one job for an entirely different path is so uninspiring and is the reason why so many people cannot channel their creativity into their own work. What my former coworkers considered side projects and little insignificant hobbies, the work that I generated on my own became the backbone of my portfolio. And now I work at an awesome advertising agency after spending many years in book publishing.
It is unfortunate to be pigeon-holed into one segment of graphic design, but its not impossible to change that. I agree with Chip about finding meaning in your work and channeling that through other forms of art/design/music/fashion/culture/etc. It is a sentiment that has been around forever. How do you expect to grow creatively without trying something new or being challenged or exploring new ways to problem solve. It is not hard to ask yourself,”why am I a designer, what am I trying to say?” Or “what is most important to me, in my work, in my life?” And the answers could spawn good reasons to start making stuff. Leave the mess of what to label it for later.
JLew: I’m sorry you find this post so uninspiring. I had hoped it was obvious by my tone that I am speaking in very broad terms here! Of course there are people who leave the publishing world to pursue other interests, but in my experience over the past decade has been that there is very little movement within the field, other than from pub house to pub house. If you spent a period of time working in publishing, you surely must have noticed this.
And yes, of course these sentiments have been around forever (I think that’s how sentiments generally work, and what makes bringing them up again draw people closer together), but it can be extremely hard to accomplish the kind of things that you’re talking about. When people are dealing with their mountains of other responsibilities (mortgages, children, marriages, commuting, bills, health, and so forth) on TOP of their moneymaking “day job”, following your heart and developing yourself creatively in different directions often becomes less and less of a priority. It’s a testament to your character that you’ve found it so easy to achieve that balance of client/self creative satisfaction and productivity, but I’m afraid that’s not the case for everyone.
Lori, I’m not sure I’m all that well equipped to answer your question, because my suspicion is that things work differently at the smaller, non-NYC-based publishers. I work for a major, super-commercial publishing house, and I’d estimate that roughly 75% of our covers are done in-house. I have coworkers who do freelance work on the side for some smaller publishing companies, and they outsource almost everything.
Perhaps someone reading this who works for a smaller, more specialized publisher (Hello? Nicole?) could chime in here…
I must say that after my initial read of this post, I too thought that your thoughts on book jacket designers were a bit limiting. Chip Kidd and MIchaeal Ian Kaye were two reasons that I got into book design in the first place. They were also two reasons that I got out. Those two designers showed that they could do other things, things outside design and outside of books, and be just as successful, if not more. I would say never stop dreaming and always continue growing. If you love design, make it your priority.
Hey, if books are for you, awesome. But, if they aren’t know that you can write a book, design a Kate Spade bag, or even move to a far away place and work in an ad firm to create advertising for the nation to consume.
OK, so apparently there’s no room for humor when it comes to book design!
Is it THAT hard to take my “once a book designer, always a book designer” comments as being lighthearted? It’s hard for me to believe that anyone who has worked in book design for any length of time did not notice that A LOT of the people working in that field tend to stick around for the long haul.
I should add that I don’t see staying in one field of design as being a negative or limiting in any way. That, really, was the point of this whole post — that designers can and should develop themselves further outside of their client-based jobs. Is the bulk of the post lost to former book cover designers just because of the crack I made about longevity? That’s unfortunate.
But then again, design as a career is not my top priority in life (that award goes to my family), and I’m not much of a dreamer. I’m quite the realist. Again, I don’t see these facts as being negatives. That’s just the way it is for a lot of us, and I don’t think it’s so desperately uninspirational to think that one can work within the confines of a traditional work/home/life situation to explore other aspects of one’s creativity. It doesn’t always require a career change to accomplish that.
Enjoyed the post and the comments. Great food for thought.
“When people are dealing with their mountains of other responsibilities (mortgages, children, marriages, commuting, bills, health, and so forth) on TOP of their moneymaking ‘day job’, following your heart and developing yourself creatively in different directions often becomes less and less of a priority.”
Thanks for the interesting video and beautiful post. Always enjoy your blog.
Where I work (and I am not a graphic designer, that’s pretty apparent when you look at my blog…) our designers work on everything from book covers to bedding to fashion apparel to oven mitts to video game packaging…to underpants…and on and on.
This post and its comments were very inspiring! I’m 23 w/o a degree and have been designing ads/layouts in a small newspaper setting. I have bigger and better dreams, and don’t plan on limiting myself to my current situation–although I don’t think I would mind it if I had no other option. Great discussion.
BTW…I would love to know, how do you even get into book cover design? Seems very cool.
Hi Parg! I studied graphic design and book arts in college, and at my graduation, one of my professors told me about a position at a publishing company that he thought I might be interested in. Three weeks later, I was hired! I’ve always had a love for books on every level (literary content, bookstores, construction, binding, paper, and jackets!), and a lot of my design heroes were at some point in their career involved in cover design. It was really a natural path for me to take when I graduated, and it was something I new I wanted to do — even though it had turned out to be very different than I imagined it would be in college.
Good luck with your future endeavors! Don’t be afraid to pad that portfolio! ;)
great insight and post anna!
This is more of a general comment, but your site is filed in my favourites under ‘need inspiration’ and I am always inspired in some way when I click on the link! So hello from a graphic design graduate in Ireland who can’t make up her mind what to do next…but please keep on posting great stuff!