Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Chip Kidd is best known for his book jacket designs, which have been credited with spawning a revolution in the art of the book cover in the US. Master of the graphic non-sequitur, Kidd has designed covers for books by authors such as John Updike, Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton, Peter Carey and William Boyd that engage the reader's intelligence as well as imagination. This illustrated volume presents an appraisal of his oeuvre.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

No two artists' names are more recognizable from their frequent appearances on book jackets than Marion Ettlinger and Chip Kidd-Ettlinger for her dramatic author photos and Kidd for his eye-candy designs. Elegantly presenting selections of both artists' work, these two books will entice obsessive fiction readers and publishing junkies, as well as professionals in commercial portraiture and graphic design. Ettlinger is the master of the author image and has captured some of the most famous (e.g., Joyce Carol Oates, Erica Jong, Truman Capote, Denis Johnson, and Ann Beattie), as well as those barely known. While her images don't look like celebrity shots-there are very few smiles, and all are black and white-they are glamorous in a way that says "literary," with thoughtful stares and frequently visible hands. Her style clearly comes out of an art historical aesthetic, and her subjects always manage to look stunning, smart, and authorial, whether they're just sitting on a backwards chair or posed with a theatrical backdrop. The only text apart from identifying captions is Richard Ford's brief foreword, where he admiringly recalls his own sitting for Ettlinger. This is the first time these 200 photos have been shown together inside a book rather than alone, gracing the back flap. Kidd has worked with many of the same authors in his nearly 20 years as a designer for Knopf and a freelancer elsewhere, and during that time his name has become synonymous with hip and beautiful book designs, though he also has a novel to his credit (The Cheese Monkeys; author photo by Ettlinger, of course). His jacket designs include the "two-image collages" he first became known for (e.g., the novels of Cormac McCarthy), as well as more elaborate designs, such as intricate die-cut and vellum overlays for books by Haruki Murakami and Michael Crichton. Graphic designer Vienne (Something To Be Desired: Essays on Design) provides an introduction, in which she discusses Kidd's developments in design, his fellow designers at Knopf, the innovative use of photography, and Kidd's obsession with comic books. Her discussion of his reputation as a "design demigod" will be of interest only to publishing insiders, but her commentary alongside each of the designs (about 100), with spry quotes from Kidd himself, point out the unexpected and ingenious connections between the book and the design elements. Though the aesthetic is different-Ettlinger seems to restore a lost dignity to literary authors, whereas Kidd makes their work look new-both contribute strikingly to the visual image of authors and their words.-Carolyn Kuebler, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Designer Kidd's book covers and photographer Ettlinger's author photos deliver a shock of recognition-oh, so that's who designed the cover for Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, and who hasn't seen that photo of Raymond Carver delivering that ponderous aquamarine glare into the camera? Kidd's accomplishments in repositioning the boundaries of book design come to the fore when presented in bulk, highlighting such innovations as running text across art, using found-art images (which usually include a healthy dose of extreme wit) and even printing type or photos upside down. Ettlinger's sleek photographs take on a slightly otherworldly quality, with authors delivering the same grave facial expression, staring into the camera as though trying to project into infinity. Rather than bringing out each author's individual qualities, Ettlinger instead molds them into an ideal of the author-and it works, despite the fact that anyone who's attended a book signing realizes that authors are as squinty, nerdy, spindly and awkward as the rest of us. Any lover of books will enjoy learning that the making of a book always involves more than one creative person; these two, presented in fittingly well-illustrated, carefully printed and thoughtfully laid-out editions, are at the forefront of managing readers' first impressions. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Adult/High School-Graphic-design students, book lovers, marketing and sales majors, and browsers alike will be drawn to this well-designed, beautifully illustrated examination of Kidd's oeuvre. A glance at the examples, from a scrapbooklike tribute to Charles Schulz to the dinosaur silhouette for Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, reveals the wide-ranging and influential nature of the designer and illustrator's work. He is known most widely for his design of book covers, for example the three progressively colored jackets for Cormac McCarthy's "Border Trilogy" or the typographical logo that Elmore Leonard carries with him from publisher to publisher. Kidd's innovative use of photographs and graphic-design elements to reinforce the concept of reality in fiction added a new dimension to book covers. Vienne begins with a candid and useful history of her subject's development, especially his obsession with Batman and other comic heroes. While the author places him firmly as a member of the team at Knopf with a publisher willing to take some significant chances, she allows him his just deserts as an innovator. There are 105 color reproductions, almost all described stylistically in the text, with wry comments and insights from Kidd in the captions. A fine introduction to an artist and art form visible everywhere, but not always given its due.-Susan H. Woodcock, Fairfax County Public Library, Chantilly, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

A welcome addition to the recent books on the developments of graphic design--others include The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson, by Lewis Blackwell and David Carson (1995); Hybrid Imagery: The Fusion of Technology and Graphic Design, by April Greiman (1990), and retrospectives of Paul Rand and Tibor Kalman--Vienne's treatment of the work of Chip Kidd allows readers to appreciate the imagination at work behind the bookshelf, so to speak. As a manuscript is prepared for printing, the cover is given to a cover designer--often a different designer than the one preparing the text. In the hands of a designer as capable as Kidd, the book cover becomes not only a portrayal of the emotional intensity of the work, but a kind of cultural icon influencing, much as advertising does, the look of our daily lives. More than a hundred full-color illustrations bring Kidd's work to life on the page. The design of this book (by Brad Yendle) is itself a tribute to the high state of the design arts. The mood is direct and respectful, yet with an undercurrent of rollicking fun. For any library with a section on art. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels. S. Skaggs University of Louisville

Booklist Review

There's a portrait of Chip Kidd in Marion Ettlinger's Author Photo, presumably as author of the novel The Cheese Monkeys (2001), but Kidd is also a gifted and enormously successful graphic designer specializing in book jackets for such distinguished houses as Knopf. Vienne chronicles Kidd's unique use of photographic images, fascination with comic strips, involvement with graphic novels, and reputation as a jester. Readers are then free to marvel over Kidd's visual acumen and agile wit as manifest in jackets for books by Peter Carey, Donna Tartt, Robert Hughes, James Ellroy, Michael Ondaatje--well, you get the point. --Donna Seaman Copyright 2003 Booklist

Author notes provided by Syndetics

She was born and raised in Paris, and now lives in New York. She was a magazine art director for Parenting, Self, and Interiors before becoming a feature writer for such magazines as Harper's Bazaar and Town & Country. She also writes a regular column for House and Garden.

(Bowker Author Biography)