Whoever first said "You can't judge a book by its cover" has been lost to the ages, but Chip Kidd, the most celebrated of book cover designers, isn't arguing.
At 39, Kidd has designed more than 1,500 covers for authors from Michael Crichton to John Updike. But he says that judging a book by what's on its jacket is "irredeemably shallow."
He asks, "Would you want to be judged by your face?"
But don't people do that all the time?
"Yes, but it doesn't mean you should."
Kidd's work is now the subject of a book, Chip Kidd (Yale University Press, $19.95) by Veronique Vienne, a designer turned writer, who offers another view:
"Whether or not we know it, we all judge a book by its cover. Its role is to communicate not only what the book is about, but who will enjoy reading it. There is a subliminal language of images and typography that speaks directly to the subconscious mind of the potential book buyer."
Some covers, she says, can be misleading: "Serious anthropological studies can be disguised as mystery novels, but more often than not, they accurately reflect the mood, the style and the literary merits of what's between the covers."
USA Today
John Gall
SB: Why did you become a graphic designer?
Gall: I was studying—one semester—to be an architect. Ha! I was also taking some art courses, drawing, etc., which led to some design courses, then seeing and being turned on by certain things that were going on in the field at that time … mid-80s. The immediate attraction was purely visual. The learning-to-think part came later. Unlike kids entering the field today, where they know what they are getting into, I didn’t even really know what graphic design was. My first freelance job was to make these hand-painted signs for this little grocery near my house. It took me about two weeks to imitate the kind of signs you see hanging in supermarkets —ground beef, $1.99 lb. I think I was paid $10.
SB: What makes a good book cover?
Gall: Different groups within the publishing company will each have different answers for this question. What an editor thinks is good, Sales might not. And as designers we have a different set of criteria, which must also include everyone else’s criteria. How that gets resolved is always a bit tricky. A really great cover is going to convey the essence of the book in a unique and surprising way that maybe pushes the design envelope a bit. It might even add to and enhance the editorial content of the book. A cover that is seen and respected by other designers is a good thing too, I guess, but the mission is really to allow the book to make a great first impression.
Whether people actually buy books because of the cover is open for debate. I mean, even I don’t know, though I’m usually checking the credit to see who is designing them.
SB: Your design solutions have a great plasticity—range, the creation of illusion of depth, elasticity—as if you were a master fine artist manipulating collage elements or sensually moving oil paint on a canvas. Your work pushes the range of the design medium. How did you learn to manipulate the 2D surface in such fascinating ways?
Gall: I’ve always been kind of interested in flat 2D space vs. representational 3D space and how to create space using 2D elements as well as negating or poking holes in space within a 3D context. When designing a cover we’re basically reworking the same 5 x 8 or 6 x 9 space over and over, so I’m always trying to arrange elements into interesting juxtapositions and trying to find some breathing room. It’s very easy to clutter up the page.
