Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006 Paperback – November 1, 2005

This an excellent ,colorful book with very useful and informative comments,they are also humorous.Kidd mentions that he shows failed designs when he lectures to show that even a successful designer has failures.Unfortunately,in my opinion,the jacket for this volume falls in this category,its clever but not practical.because the cover is split in two parts its an irritation to hold and eventually the cover will be bent when laying down or storing in shelf.Still a must have in this genre.Now how about a Susan Mitchell collection?ps.i followed my advice and bought the hardcover .Amazing its even more unwieldy,the cover is half hard and half soft,yikes!I ended up buying the soft cover to keep and treat it very carefully ,was that the point of this nutty design?I guess this cover will enter the hall of fame and certainly will be a collectors item if its never opened.Argghh!!!

Chip Kidd is one of those people who makes me think about the work that I do, and inspires me to try to be more creative. Some design lends itself to stealing and there is a tendency to try to emulate styles, but you can't do that with Kidd's work because it is the idea itself which is so fantastic. He manages to find a perfect way to complement the work of the author and create an ideal package. While his work doesn't conform to any particular style, I find that I can easily spot Kidd's covers on a crowded bookstore shelf. (Sometimes his colleague Carol Devine Carson can fake me out with a well designed spine, but I can pretty reliably pick out a "Kidd" 90% of the time. I find that I sometimes buy books on the strengths of his covers alone.)Kidd makes me try to expand the way I think about what I'm trying to say, and for that reason, this book will be a frequent reference.

This is a great, great book. If you're a fan of Kidd's work, by all means buy this book. If you are at all interested in truly inspirational graphic design, this book is a must-have.PROS: having so many of Kidd's designs in one place is worth the price of admission, inclusion of the development and back story of each cover is interesting and elucidating, stories of his adventures in the trade are well-written and fun to learn about.CONS: the cover is awkward, the shape of the book makes it hard to hold while reading - you really have to put it on something flat - it's sometimes difficult to decipher exactly which pictures the captions are referencing.There is a definite form-over-function issue with the book, but the content is what counts - and that gets 5 stars from me without a quibble.

Wow. This book - much like Chip Kidd's design work - is simply stunning. Every page is engaging.Fortunately, Chip Kidd happens to be a very good writer. There is no ego here, Kidd keeps a sense of humor throughout.This is a beautiful book for every designer to add to their library. My one suggestion would be to spend a few extra bucks for the hardcover edition...

While the book is great & in good shape, I was not expecting it to have prominent "TOURO COLLEGE PROPERTY" stamps around the edges. Won't be using as a coffee table book, as I wanted to.

Book received in pretty good condition. A few deep wrinkles on the cover and back pages. Otherwise, was sufficiently presentable.

A very good book. It's funny. It's like a course in graphic design. He shows comps and why they weren't chosen. Huge book. Lots of photos.

My daughter who is a Graphic Arts major seen this book somewhere and wanted a copy of it. It came quickly and she was quite happy with it!

I am a big fan of book cover design and Chip Kidd is one of the biggest names in graphic design. He has produced countless exceptional book covers, particularly for the US editions of books. Because UK publishers often go with a different cover design when a book is published on this side of the pond, many of Kidd's covers will be unfamiliar to non-American audiences, but his covers for writers such as Alan Hollinghurst, Haruki Murakami and Oliver Sacks are eye-catching, innovative and unique.In this book, which covers Kidd's work up to 2006, you gain a real insight into Kidd's creative process. He writes very clearly about how he approaches each cover, details the steps he takes in researching and developing an idea, and even includes ideas that didn't work out.The book is incredibly designed, of course, and really opened my eyes to Kidd's work, as well as to other graphic designers' cover work: after reading this, you won't be able to browse Amazon's book section without thinking about the covers and how they were conceived and what they say about the book inside.An essential purchase, in my view, for fans of graphic design and book cover lovers.

This book is a lot bigger than it looks… and that is a good thing! In terms of size and page count I was pleasantly surprised with the book itself and it really helps to show of the, for the most part, full size book covers and development images inside. A fantastic read for anybody interested in design or books in general

This book is great for anyone with an interest in book cover design, or just graphic design in general. I originally borrowed it from my college library, loved it, and decided to buy it. The price is great for such a good and large book, and it arrived promptly with no damage.

No really, it's a boring book to be fair, I've had better afternoons with the Freeman's catalogue, and the format makes my one bookshelf look all raggedy like a Victorian ragamuffins undergarments on washday.