Chip Kidd: Book Design

Chip Kidd is known for designing books, particularly famous for creating the iconic t-Rex on the Jurassic Park movie image. One of the first things he said that really stuck with me was how when designing book covers you have to think about giving form to content. You have to know all about the content and research it to fully understand how you should design the book. You want someone to see the book, not even know what it's about and say, " Wow! I need to read that!" Another interesting point he made was about not necessarily showing what the title says. He talks about designing a book called "Dry" that focuses on a recovering alcoholic. He made the type on the cover look like it was running with wet ink by splashing water on it with help from the printer, it looked really realistic in the store. Book covers are more than they sometimes get credit for. You can't get a lot from the cover on a kindle. Overall he was a very entertaining speaker, and I thought it was important to watch before diving into the next project.

http://www.ted.com/talks/chip_kidd_designing_books_is_no_laughing_matter_ok_it_is?embed=true#t-305786