Rebecca on the Gutenberg Bible

While Gutenberg never financially benefited from his printing press, he approached the release of it like a true business person. By choosing to print the Bible first, Gutenberg ensured the widest audience possible for the unveiling of his invention and even considered international distribution. Even the amount of decoration included in each book was dependent on how much the owner was willing to spend. Much like publishers of today, it's release boiled down to money.

The process by which this book was printed and later embellished is fascinating. Today, we are accustomed to creating everything in one medium - the computer. But the Gutenberg Bible was a different animal, requiring first, the printing of the main text, followed by hand drawn text and illustrations. In this way, each book was unique. Fabulous!

Overall, a beautiful clarity marks this book's design. The generous margins and gutters cleanly separate the justified black text from the illustrative elements. The white space gives plenty of room to breath and the line lengths are relatively short. Simple design choices enhance the navigation within the main text: Prominent red drop caps are easy indicators of new paragraphs, while red ink used on the first letter of each sentence make what may otherwise be a hard-to-read justified, blocky text, legible. The typeface, which emulates hand-written calligraphy (as previous books were created), is a challenge to read but considering the time when this book was printed, is forgivable.

I especially love the way the illustrations add a beautiful interlude from the text. They interact with the text without distracting from it. Small elements, such as the image pictured above, help break the monotony of the text and add a nice surprise while reading.

Mark's Chip Kidd Cover Choice

I appreciated Kidd's design for "Come to Me". It feels smart and absurd in a 90's kind of way which is very distinct.

In the photograph itself, the colors present and the objects present are so plain that the fact it is twisted on its side makes the cover feel more absurd and invokes curiosity more than just feeling like creating noise for the sake of noise. I also liked that you can read the title and author either horizontally or vertically depending on the side you pick it up on, further adding to the intrigue of what the inside of the book could be like.

Sarah's Chip Kidd Cover

Let me start off by saying I really liked all of the cover designs, so it was really hard to pick my favorite. Theft by Peter Carey really caught my eye. Although I have never read this book, I imagine it would be a very dramatic love story. If I saw this book at a book store, I would definitely pick it up to read more about it. It's interesting how the title card for the missing piece of artwork has the book title and author on it. I like how the words "a love story" are included below the title, because without that bit of information, I would have no idea it was a romance. It also looks like the spine has an interesting design.

Jolie's Chip Kidd Pick

I really liked the cover for "A Wolf At The Table" that Kristi already mentioned, but the cover for "Theft" also stood out to me. All of the blank space in the photograph caught my attention. At first I thought "What is she looking at?", then, "Oh, it's a missing painting", then, "Theft!", all within 3 seconds. I love how the title and the author of the book mimic the format of an exhibition title card. Sometimes you will find the price of the painting on these cards, and I think it could have been clever to somehow add that the price was free because it was stolen. I also love that little strip of a painting on the left side. It's interesting, but not obvious.

Jackie's Chip Kidd Cover Pick

As a Charlie Brown/Peanuts fan, this cover immediately caught my attention. I love the simplicity of using Charlie's iconic shirt pattern for the background. Anyone who would be interested in this book would understand the reference. By using the peanuts typeface and the colors/pattern together, Kidd creates an excitement for the potential reader that entices them to purchase, or at least flip through, the book.

Chip Kidd-Eponymous Talent

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.

Rebecca's Two Cents on Chip Kidd

I really like the way Chip Kidd uses perspective to his advantage. I noticed a lot of his covers do this, which opens up the seemingly "small" space of a book cover to something larger.

For instance, Kazuo Ishguro's The Unconsoled cover, uses a photograph of what may be piano string pegs (based on what I read about the main character of the story who was a pianist who lost his memory). Only the pegs have no strings, perhaps alluding to the pianist's missing memories. Rather than use a flat image, Kidd used lighting to cast shadows, enhancing the image's dimensionality. Furthermore, the cover copy also casts shadows (even though they are flat), making this an interesting cover, indeed, and reflective of the story's main premise.

The cover for Loop, by Koji Suzuki, also employs depth and dimension, although this time, Kidd only uses the typography and basic graphics.

Chip Kidd reminds me that I am not restricted, figuratively speaking, to the mathematical dimensions of the cover's paper size.

Go creativity! :)