Over at the TED Radio Hour Podcast (NPR Radio) they recently interviewed Designer Chip Kidd on “How Do Book Covers Create Their Own Stories”. It’s mostly a recap of his TED Speech, which has been pretty popular, but they also talk about the importance of Graphic Design in the service of selling books and supporting the Author’s ideas. We have embedded the podcast down below, right here, for you to enjoy. So, please give that a quick listen.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Also, Chip’s interview was a part of a larger series of interviews with other Designers, Writers and Authors all about writing & overall book design.. The entire program is titled, “Framing The Story”, so to hear the complete episode please visit the Official NPR website, just CLICK HERE!

One more thing, we want to invite anyone who has not seen Chip Kidd’s TED Speech to check it out too. I mean, it is sort of what this interview was based on and if you have never seen it then it will make more sense. And, as always, please feel free to share this post on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social network you might be a member of. Thank you!

With a new season quickly approaching many “book lover” blogs & websites are starting to publish their Summer of 2013 Reading Lists. Like, what books they feel will be big hits soon & what you should hunt down at your favorite bookstore or library. So, on Jimmy Fallon’s LATE NIGHT he recently shared his “Do NOT Read” List. Yes, you read that right, “DO NOT READ”… his Summer reading tips are a warning for what NOT to hunt down. It’s pretty funny, check it out!

Here’s a fun video we knew we had to share. Chip Kidd was at the recent 2013 BookExpo America where he ran into Kristen, a roving reporter at the event. She’s the super-cute girl on the right, ha! She was also kind enough to stop & interview Chip about his next new book, “GO: A Kidd’s Guide To Graphic Design”. The book will be published by Workman Publishing Group & you can look for it to hit bookstores around October. Kristen had some really great questions so please be sure to check it out!

MENTAL_FLOSS is a really fun video series hosted by John Green, where knowledge junkies get their fix of trivia-tastic information. In this video (down below), John looks at common spelling and grammar errors such as “Stationery vs. Stationary,” “Good vs. Well” and “Loose vs. Lose.” So, if you fancy yourself an aspiring writer or author; then please be sure to watch it now!

Yesterday, as an ongoing part of their series of “Inside Random House” promotional videos, Random House Inc. posted a new feature story titled, “The Art of Cover Design” . Its main focus is about the creation and art direction of Book Jackets… and how they relate to both sales and the book author’s artistic vision.

The video features members of the Random House creative team who are very involved with the design of book covers, listed here in order of appearance:

Marysarah Quinn - Senior VP & Creative Director of Crown Publishing Group
Robbin Schiff - Executive Art Director of Random House Publishing Group
Chip Kidd - Associate Art Director at Knopf & Editor-At-Large of Graphic Novels at Pantheon
Peter Mendelsund - Associate Art Director at Knopf & Art Director at Pantheon
Christopher Brand - Art Director for Crown, Hogarth, and Broadway

How about this for some inspiration?! Check out this totally amazing short animated film created by two Artists, Sam Taylor and Bjorn Aschim. It’s titled, 'Everything I Can See From Here', a tale of miscommunication. It tells the story of two friends and their dog messing about with a soccer ball when an unintended visitor wants to join the fun.

On May 9th, 2013, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show interviewed David Sedaris, the author of “LET’S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS” (Little, Brown and Company). Check out the video, it’s pretty funny!

Author James Ellroy joins Walter Kirn on BylinerTV for a conversation where nothing is restrained and the boundaries of polite conversation are obliterated.

Ellroy testifies to the vile and glorious corners of L.A., and shares his visions of history without refracting the present day. With all the confidence of a shotgun blast, he tears through the politically correct limits on discussion and breathes fire with each admission and opinion. From his roots in writing, crime, fame fascination and current events, it’s an interview that could be measured on the Richter scale.

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.

Design for change. Design for good. Design for a better world.

These are the premises that fuel DESIGN INDABA. Their goal is for a better world through design, creativity and innovation.

Chip Kidd spoke at their 2011 event and while in Barcelona he stumbled across a caf decorated with book covers that he had designed. He found this both strange… and rather great!