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:

This is just a quick post to share this fun image I came across the other day. It’s a promotional poster created by MELTDOWN COMICS (Los Angeles, CA) for when they had Chip Kidd as a special guest. Of course, this was for the BAT-MANGA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN (Pantheon) Book Tour a few years ago. The ultra-cool thing was that this poster was super HUGE! Man, I totally love this image.

Here’s a quick post to share this example of some cool graphic design created by Chip Kidd. He recently redesigned the PANTHEON GRAPHIC NOVELS Logo for a trade show banner they needed for the recent 2013 San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) and we have to admit that it looks pretty damn good!

At this year’s 2013 San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) Chris Ware was honored with four (Yes 4!) Eisner Awards for his brand-new Graphic Novel, BUILDING STORIES (Published by Pantheon). Here’s a photo of one of them, Congrats Chris… you honestly deserve this credit, great job!!

WOW! This is insanely great news!! OK, we don’t mean to brag, but at this year’s 2013 San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) Chris Ware’s new Graphic Novel, BUILDING STORIES (Pantheon Books) won four 2013 Eisner Awards!!! Yes, FOUR! This is almost too good to be true and we are so proud of Chris Ware. His new Graphic Novel, also known as “The Book in a Box”, won in these categories: Best New Graphic Novel, Best Writer/Artist, Best Lettering and Best Publication Design.

We want to congratulate Chris Ware (and Pantheon Books) for their amazing success!

While Chip Kidd was having fun partying at this week’s 2013 San Diego Comic Con (OK honestly, he was probably working like a dog) he was kind enough to share a few fun photos he took while running around.

The first one is of him standing in front of the Booth for Pantheon Books. Hey, take a notice of the banner in the background with the new “Pantheon Graphic Novels” logo!

Next, Chip ran into some super-awesome famous people. The 1st pic is none other than Neil Gaiman (The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Make Good Art Speech, & soon, Sandman Overture for DC Comics) and then we get to see the Fantasy Author, George R. R. Martin (The Game of Thrones). That’s cool!

Then, last but not least, he dropped by the HOT TOYS Toy Booth to see the brand-new Classic 1966 BATMAN TV Series Figures and Batmobile. These are coming out later this year and they are insanely beautiful…. actually, Masterpieces of ART!

Here’s a quick post to share some fun news for you Book Readers out there. We’re not sure if you know it yet but Random House has PDF Files of their Fall 2013 Catalogs (and then, also, their combined Summer 2013 catalogs too) you can download. They are sort of like “online magazines” and they’re FREE! Think of them as a “Press Release Book” showing everything that will be released in the Fall (and Summer) that are loaded with a ton of great information & beautiful book cover graphics. In other words, it’s a chance for you to work on your next “Reading List”.

To view them just click on their names.To save them, just right-click & then “save as”:

Knopf - Fall 2013

Pantheon / Schocken - Fall 2013

Doubleday - Fall 2013

Knopf / Pantheon - Summer 2013

Vintage Books / Anchor Books - Summer 2013

On Tuesday, July 30th, at 7:00 pm, Housing Works Bookstore is pleased to host a discussion with pianist/composer Timo Andres, artist/book designer Peter Mendelsund, and The New Yorker‘s Leo Carey.The event is FREE and should be extremely interesting so, if you can, go check it out! For more detailed information, please CLICK HERE!

Timo Andres, whose most recent album, Home Stretch, explores and recreates pieces by Mozart and Brian Eno, is a huge admirer of Peter Mendelsund, who has designed book jackets at Random House for iconic authors such as James Joyce, Franz Kafka (examples shown down below), Julio Cort zar, and Michel Foucault. Together, with the help of critic Leo Carey, they will talk about their respective “anxiety of influences” and the ways in which they hope to remain faithful to a tradition while making it their own. Copies of Home Stretch, which releases that day, will be on sale.

We should also mention that Peter Mendelsund is the Associate Art Director of Alfred A. Knopf Books, the Art Director of Pantheon Books, Art Director of Vertical Press, and has a new book coming out in April, 2014 titled, COVER (Power House Books).

Here’s a friendly reminder that PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE Books and their other groups (Pantheon, Knopf & Schocken, Doubleday, and Vintage Anchor) will be exhibiting at the next 2013 SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON (SDCC), which at the time of this posting is next weekend! I mean, it starts on Thursday, July 18th, and runs until Sunday, July 21st. Their booth numbers are 1514 & 1515 and are located just a few spaces from the DC Comics Booth. For a more detailed EXHIBIT HALL MAP please CLICK HERE!

Please be sure to visit the PANTHEON Graphic novels Booth because they will be giving away “Cartoonist Buttons” and “Pantheon Bookmarks” which were designed by Chip Kidd. The Pin-Back Buttons feature portraits of Charles Burns, Art Spiegelman, and Chris Ware. They will also have a preview of Pantheon's next graphic novel, THE ADVENTURES OF LOVELACE AND BABBAGE by Sydney Padua, set to be released next fall in 2014. Also, as an added bonus, they will have LIMITED giveaway copies of other Pantheon titles including Hanan al-Shaykh's ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS , PZ Myers' THE HAPPY ATHEIST and Jesse Ball's SILENCE ONCE BEGUN (early copies in advance of the January 2014 release!).

Also, in the Random House Booth, they’re gonna have a ton of great Authors who are not only selling books but will be available for book signings. Check out the list down below!

Author Roger Hobbs will appear on the “Keep 'Em at the Edge of Their Seats” panel on Thursday at 4 pm, and he will sign copies of GHOSTMAN at the Random House booth (#1515) on Friday, 4:00 - 5:00pm.

Chuck Palahniuk will be on the “Ode to Nerds” panel on Thursday at 1:45 pm, and he will signing books at the Random House booth (#1515) on Friday, 10:00 - 11:00am.

Anne Rice will be back at SDCC this year to meet fans and promote her werewolf series, The Wolf Gift Chronicles. The next installment, THE WOLVES OF MIDWINTER, pubs on October 15th. Her signing will take place on Saturday, 3:00 - 5:00pm in the Autograph Area #AA03. Also, be sure to watch for a fun giveaway at the Knopf Pantheon booth, while supplies last.

Andrew Vachss will be signing copies of his new AFTERSHOCK Book at the Random House booth (#1515) on Saturday, 10:00 - 11:00am.

Hey, if you’re reading this post and visiting this website then there’s a pretty good chance that you either love reading books or enjoy Graphic Design. Well, we’re happy to announce that we have recently posted a ton of brand-new photos of work done by the Designer, Chip Kidd. Of course all the new stuff is mostly all book covers but they’re fun to see. So, please visit our GALLERY PAGE by clicking RIGHT HERE, or you can always just click the “Gallery” TAB Button up above, just below the header. Enjoy.

Oh yeah, hey wait! We almost forgot to ask… PLEASE remember to share this site with all your friends on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media you might use. Our goal is to attract a lot of traffic to this site and we would appreciate ANY help you can give.Thanks!