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Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd

Writer / Graphic Designer (New York, New York)

The history of book design can be split into two eras: before graphic designer Chip Kidd and after.
Time Out New York, Nov. 2005

Chip Kidd is a writer and graphic designer in New York City. His book jacket designs for Alfred A. Knopf (where he has worked since 1986) have helped spawn a revolution in the art of American book packaging. In 1997 he received the International Center of Photography’s award for Use of Photography in Graphic Design, and he is a regular contributor of visual commentary to the Op-ed page of the New York Times. In the fall of 2006, Kidd’s work will be included in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum’s third National Design Triennial.

Mr Kidd has also written about graphic design and popular culture for McSeeney’s, The New York Times, The New York Observer, Entertainment Weekly, Details, The New York Post, ID and Print. His first book as author and designer, Batman Collected (Bulfinch, 1996), was given the Design Distinction award from ID magazine, and his second, Batman Animated (HarperCollins, Fall 1998) garnered two of the Comics Industry’s Eisner Awards, as did his 2002 book Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz.

As an editor of books of comics for Pantheon (a subsidiary of Knopf) Kidd has worked extensively with some of the most brilliant talents practicing today, including: Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Dan Clowes, Kim Deitch, Charles Burns, Mark Beyer, Ben Katchor and Alex Ross.

A comprehensive monograph of Kidd’s work, CHIP KIDD: BOOK ONE was published in October of 2005. The introduction is by John Updike and the 400 page book features over 800 works, spanning two decades, from 1986 through 2006. It’s first edition sold out a week before publication and it has since gone into two consecutive re-printings.

The Cheese Monkeys, Kidd’s first novel, was published by Scribner in Fall of 2001 and was a national bestseller, as well as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He is currently at work on his second novel, tentatively titled The Learners. Both books use the design process as a means to construct a compelling narrative.

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