This post is a 180 from my previous post. I'm discussing two covers. First off, kudos to Chip Kidd. Can this level of design be cultivated? Maybe it falls under once-in-a-life-time social-outcast artist/genius? Or, what is he on and where can I get some? I'll just start with my favorite cover. Big surprise, the Schulz and Peanuts design immediately drew me in. It's simple, effective and witty. Charlie Brown's yellow and black shirt is so famous, all that is needed to identify the brand is the yellow background with black zigzag. It doesn't even matter that the design doesn't immediately lend itself to a shirt. It's unnecessary and would render the image contrived. Anything more would be an insult to the viewer's intelligence and ruin the effect.
Next on my list is the David Sedaris book When You Are Engulfed in Flames. It's painful, but I will admit that I admire his writing, I just wish that he didn't indulge in artistic license so liberally. And this cover has always fascinated me. I wonder if non-smoking campaigns have ever thought to use the smoking skeleton, I'm sure it would be effective. The illustration is dark, morbid and dangerous and the link between smoking and death is overt minus the nagging. As usual, it's the sardonic I'm attracted to. In fact, I just realized, I didn't even look at a cover that had more than three design elements.
