To avoid cluttering your in-box I tried to get ready a collage with various covers designed by Chip Kidd for the former Brazilian edition (Editora Civilização Brasileira) of some of Nabokov's novels and Memories. The images are difficult to discern and, if of interest to the Nabokov-L, I can send them one by one later on, following editorial decision. What motivated me to photograph them once again was the fact that I just watched a Chip Kidd's performance on TED- Ideas worth Spreading.

"Chip Kidd's book jacket designs spawned a revolution in the art of American book packaging.Why you should listen to him:You know a Chip Kidd book when you see it -- precisely because it's unexpected, non-formulaic, and perfectly right for the text within. As a graphic designer for Alfred A. Knopf since 1986, Kidd has designed shelves full of books, including classics you can picture in a snap:Jurassic Park, Naked by David Sedaris, All the Pretty Horses . His monograph, Chip Kidd: Book One, contains work spanning two decades...

Quote by Chip Kidd"Much is to be gained by eBooks: ease, convenience, portability. But something is definitely lost: tradition, a sensual experience, the comfort of thingy-ness - a little bit of humanity."

In his stand up talk, Chip Kidd explains that, on his first class with a famous graphic designer, he heard him explain that one needs to present either an image or its corresponding word, never both (he illustrated it, differently from René Magritte's proposal, with the image of an apple with the words "apple" lying beneath it)

This is the principle that seems to have ruled his choice of illustration for his Brazilian Nabokov covers. Some are ingenious, others not so much. Can anyone discover what's the cover (oops) for the collected stories bearing the title "Perfection", or "Machenka" and even "Pale Fire"?

Why you should listen to him:

You know a Chip Kidd book when you see it -- precisely because it's unexpected, non-formulaic, and perfectly right for the text within. As a graphic designer for Alfred A. Knopf since 1986, Kidd has designed shelves full of books, including classics you can picture in a snap:Jurassic Park, Naked by David Sedaris, All the Pretty Horses … His monograph, Chip Kidd: Book One, contains work spanning two decades. As editor of comics for Pantheon, Kidd has commissioned work from graphic novelists like Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Dan Clowes and Ben Katchor. He's a novelist as well, author of The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners.

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Quotes by Chip Kidd

“Much is to be gained by eBooks: ease, convenience, portability. But something is definitely lost: tradition, a sensual experience, the comfort of thingy-ness — a little bit of humanity.”
Watch this talk »