Analyzing Narrative: Chip Kidd

    "Whether or not we know it, we all judge a book by its cover. Its role is to communicate not only what the book is about, but who will enjoy reading it. There is a subliminal language of images and typography that speaks directly to the subconscious mind of the potential book buyer."  Veronique Vienne, who wrote Chip Kidd, said this about the effect a cover has on the potential reader.  We all know that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but the cover gives us a hint at what it's about.  Chip Kidd knows the tricks to these hints and has been one of the more successful designers to continually produce book covers for Alfred A. Knopf since 1986.  
    All of the biographies that I found on graphic designers were brief bio's basically just saying who the person is, what kind of design they do, and who their famous clientele have been.  So to find a few more rhetorical elements in a piece of writing about a graphic designer, I read an article written by Bob Minzesheimer for USA Today in 2003.  The title of the article was Chris Kidd, book cover designer, unmasked.  This article gave a little bit more information about who Chris Kidd is and what he does, in a more appealing way than a brief bio.  
    Minzesheimer said that Kidd has been described as a "design demigod," an "inky colossus" and "the closest thing to a rock star" in graphic design. This use of allusion makes his skills seem larger than life, which help get the point across that he's one of the most respected designers in the business today.  This also shows Minzesheimer's use of examples to support his points.  His angle for the article is to promote both Vienne and Kidd, so he uses quotes that are going to make them look good in the spotlight.  

Learning the Lingo

Since 2006, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) has been posting TEDTalks on the internet.  These are free 18 minute talks from the world's most innovative and brilliant thinkers.  They talk about their ideas and perspectives on technology, entertainment and design.  This past year, they passed one billion views, making it one of the more inspirational, and educational phenomena in popular culture today.  I watched a TEDTalk from Martin Glaser.

"If you have to explain it, it ain't workin."

-Milton Glaser

Glaser, the American graphic designer responsible for this famous Bob Dylan poster, among many other widely-recognized images, such as the I Love NY logo, gave a TEDTalk about how great design makes ideas new.  During his time on this talk, Glaser touched on many principles of design, specifically abstraction versus naturalism, theme and variation, purpose, profile, and didacticism, among others, all in the context of his work. These are all concepts that help designers convey their message visually. Through theme and variation, you can play around with old ideas and concepts and make them applicable today. A didactic approach is meant to both entertain and instruct the audience.  He shows a few examples of this, including his "Art is Whatever" poster for the School of Visual Arts, where he teaches.

These are just a few examples of the language spoken in the world of graphic design.  If you want to hear more from Glaser's TEDTalk, here is Milton Glaser On Using Design to Make Ideas New.