Recently, over at the UNBEIGE Website (Where Designers Read Design™), Stephanie Murg did a wonderful interview with VINTAGE Magazine Founder and Editor,Ivy Baer Sherman. In the article they share information about how the magazine got started and why, what are some of the editorial philosophies of the publication, how do they print such elaborate covers? They even mention Chip Kidd’s design work he did on one of the famous covers! (shown in the photo up above)

It’s a great article and you can check it out by clicking RIGHT HERE!

Debbie Millman is the president of the design division at Sterling Brands. She is also President Emeritus of AIGA, a contributing editor to Print Magazine, and chair of the School of Visual Arts’ master’s program in Branding. In 2005, she began hosting the podcast show, DESIGN MATTERS.

In a previous "Design Matters" broadcast, Debbie interviewed the World-Class Art Director Peter Mendelsund. He is an associate art director at Knopf, as well as an art director at Pantheon Books. he is also a guiding force behind some of today’s most recognizable book covers: the Stieg Larsson books, the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace and Laurie Sheck’s A Monster’s Notes, to name just a few. Also, he has a new book about his life in graphic design coming out in April, 2014 (link down below, published by PowerHouse Books) titled, “COVER“.

To HEAR MORE TALKS with today’s most innovative thinkers and designers just click here, DESIGN MATTERS.

Here is their discussion down below, enjoy:

(CBR) DC Comics provided the website, Comic Book Resources, with an exclusive first look at Phil Noto’s variant cover for BATMAN: BLACK AND WHITE #1, which hits store shelves on September 4th, 2013. The revival of the original 1996 limited series features stories from a cornucopia of creators bringing their unique take on the Dark Knight. The debut issue of the new miniseries features work from Chip Kidd, Neal Adams, Joe Quinones, Maris Wicks, John Arcudi, Howard Mackie, Sean Murphy, Michael Cho and Chris Samnee.

The first issue was solicited with a black and white variant cover by Marc Silvestri, but DC has shifted Slivestri’s cover to be the main image, while Noto’s image will serve as the variant.

Check out Phil Noto’s take on Batman up above!

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover - but that hasn’t stopped anyone from trying. An original and visually engaging book cover/jacket can help make the difference between a flop and a smash, and over the years more than a few designers have taken the creative and mysterious process to levels of supreme beauty and imagination. Peter Mendelsund is that kind of designer and COVER is the story of his love affair with books.

Renowned and award-winning designer of many best-selling books, Peter Mendelsund has enjoyed years as a much-sought-after designer and art director. Amongst the many recognizable covers he has created are those for the American edition of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and the following books of the Millennium trilogy; collections of the works of James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Dostoevsky, de Beauvoir, Bernhard, and Camus; the contemporary works of Peter Carey, Martin Amis, Tom McCarthy, Ben Marcus, Rick Bragg, and James Gleick; and many more. All have greatly benefited from the care and touch Mendelsund gave their jackets.

The entire story of a book cover - from the moment a book is initially acquired to when it finally appears on bookstores’ shelves is explained and illustrated in COVER. This brand-new book features Peter Mendelsund’s completed book jackets along with ephemera from his previously unseen creative processes, including jacket sketches, interior art and illustrations, editorial illustration, and scores of rejected drafts. These images are also punctuated by his reflections on his work and his process, as well as by texts from writers with whom he has worked and designed for, including bestselling crime writers, Pulitzer and Booker Prize-winning fiction and non-fiction authors, well-known scientists, actors, and politicians.

COVER is a compendium of beautiful design and a beautiful design object itself; a profile and celebration of one of the publishing world’s most talented and prolific contemporary creators, and a brilliant showcase of his deft touch for balanced and innovative design. Also, as sort of a disclaimer, we should note that he works with Chip Kidd at Random House Publishing. So, we’re kind of biased a little bit here! But honestly, this book is gonna be GREAT and it’s already on most book lover’s (and design students) reading lists. The book will be released in Hardcover on April 8th, 2014 and will be published by PowerHouse Books.

Remember, pre-order the book from AMAZON and save big bucks!

Just a quick note to let Chip Kidd Book Cover Design Fans know that we just updated our Galley Page where we added a ton of new jackets… actually, they appear on Gallery Page Two… just CLICK HERE!

Here’s a quick shout out for our friend and a great Cartoonist named Ivan Brunetti. This is to let everybody know that he did the artwork for this week’s cover of The New Yorker Magazine! His new book, Aesthetics: A Memoir, just came out last month (Yale University Press) and is doing quite well.

The theme of this week’s cover shares the trails and tribulations of starting a Gardening Box in your backyard and the rewards of doing so, perfect!

WOW! We could not be more pleased about this! Over at the SAMARITAN BLOG they posted a wonderful book review for the new MAKE GOOD ART Book, the one about Neil Gaiman’s famous commencement speech he gave last year. The new book, out now & published by William Morrow (an imprint of Harper Collins) , was created from the words of speech given by Neil Gaiman and designed by Chip Kidd.

The review is pretty short in length but that doesn’t take away from it being a serious book review. I mean, the Reviewer does convey their feelings about the book really well. Also, the photos of the cover are totally great! Why am I excited about some photos of a book? Well, the lighting of the photo shows you how some of the lettering on the cover is embossed & it gives you a better understanding of “how it looks”. In all the photos shared online these are the best at doing just that. So, Thank You Samaritan Blog!

Hey, please check out the book review by clicking HERE!

Chip Kidd, Associate Art Director at Knopf Books, Peter Mendelsund, Art Director for Pantheon Press, and Stephen Doyle, Creative Director, Doyle Partners; Design Contributor, New York Times and Wired, discuss whether cutting edge visual design can save the print industry. The talk is moderated by Darhil Crooks, Creative Director for the Atlantic, and way down below is the video-taped footage of the event.

Date: Tuesday, May 7th, 2013
Location: New York Historical Society, NYC

The first Speaker is Chip Kidd and he starts out talking a little bit about working with Neil Gaiman on Neil’s new book, MAKE GOOD ART : Neil Gaiman’s Speech Book. Which, by the way, is coming out on Wednesday, May 15th. Yes, that’s tomorrow! Very quickly, Chip Kidd gives a preview of what the book will look like, discusses some of the design ideas and concepts, and then (in a very sneaky way) he shamelessly plugs his own book that is coming out in October of 2013. We’re talking about his “Teaching Graphic Art to Kids” Book which is titled, “GO! A KIDD’S GUIDE TO GRAPHIC DESIGN“.

Then, next-up is Peter Mendelsund who quickly shares an amazing assortment of some of his work. Like Chip, he mainly designs book covers. But his graphic art has an interesting twist. He designs jackets for new books that are expected to be bestsellers AND he creates new covers for old classics, what they call the “back list”, and it’s all really great stuff like: Franz Kafka, Dante, Plato, Simone De Beauyoir, James Joyce, etc…

Peter also makes a shameless plug for his brand-new Design Book coming out in the Spring of 2014 titled, “COVER” by Peter Mendelsund. It looks pretty cool!

Then, the last guest (last, but NOT least) is Stephen Doyle who shares an amazing art-concept movie he created called CIPHER. This was a project he worked on with some Students and the end result is pretty interesting. He also discusses recent trends in publishing & print media.

Just a quick shout out for fans of our friend Chris Ware. His artwork is going to be featured on the cover of the next fresh issue of THE NEW YORKER Magazine. This is Chris Ware’s special “Mother’s Day” cover that will hit newsstands on May 13th, 2013. So, please be sure to keep an eye out for it!

Also, Please be sure to read Chris Ware’s Article about this Cover by clicking RIGHT HERE!

Here’s quick post to share some pretty eye candy! Shown here is a nice collection of Chris Ware’s artwork that has appeared on the covers to a few issues of THE NEW YORKER Magazine, enjoy.