If you’ve read Chip Kidd’s novels, you may have asked yourself a question I’ve asked myself—why didn’t I think of that? Kidd’s second book The Learners has just come out, and he brings back the main character from his first novel, Happy, for a journey through life after college. The world of advertising is the backdrop for a story about advertising and a larger story about life. The new book cover done in red, white and black makes a poetic statement about the plot. Happy is working on a newspaper ad, and that ad serves as a springboard and a tool to advance the plot.

Kidd already earned a reputation in the publishing world because he’s art director at Alfred A. Knopf. Last year Esquire magazine did a really interesting interview with Kidd, “How to Make People Buy Books.” Kidd explained the creative process behind three book covers he’d done recently.

His work at Knopf built a platform any author would envy. Kidd’s second novel is receiving mostly complimentary reviews. He enjoyed a tony book launch party held at an Upper East Side apartment in New York. Literary types and the cultural elite gathered to wish him well. Many a writer’s dreams would willingly steal that scene. Kidd created a video to promote the movie; Boing Boing mentioned this, so it’s obvious the designer/author is getting attention in all the right places. He speaks, he markets, he’s reviewed.

Kidd’s quirky character Happy explains to the reader he does not write poetry, adding, “But most of all: I am eager to start my career as a newly certified Bachelor of the Arts in Graphic Design, with a very specific goal — acquiring a job at the advertising agency of Spear, Rakoff & Ware; two states away, up in New Haven, Connecticut.”

Smart guy, Kidd—excel in your field and stretch your creative wings whereby you excel doing that. Sounds so simple.

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Filed under: Advertising, Book Review, Miscellaneous, Personal Opinions