Go! A Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design

Book talk:  They say not to judge a book by its cover, but admit it: you've picked up a book just because its cover looked cool.  We all have.  People put a lot of work into making a book's cover tempt readers to pick it up.  Those people are called graphic designers.  Have you ever wondered how those people decide what to put on a cover?  Would you like to learn some of their tricks to capture people's attention?  Then this is the book for you!

Rocks my socks:  This book takes the basic concepts of graphic design and breaks them down into easy to understand and clearly illustrated chunks.  Kidd plays with design in a really fun way from the typography to the copyright info to the unique binding (although from a library processing perspective the binding was a tad annoying.)  The book is so playful throughout that it's fun to read or flip through.  Kidd's expertise and the clear way he has of explaining concepts make it incredibly informative as well.

Rocks in my socks:  I wish more of the example book covers were for titles that were aimed at the same age range the book is.  I'm always looking for ways to sneak book recommendations into everything though.

Every book its reader:  The publisher lists the book as being for ages 10 and up but I used a lot of the information in the book during a unit with my 3rd graders and they were able to understand it.  It would be a great introduction to the topic for adults too.  I certainly enjoyed it and learned a lot!

Extras:

Chip Kidd has his own site with a blog and gallery of his own work.

There is also a tumblr just for the book with lots of great examples of projects submitted by design students

Kidd is teaching a class on book cover design at skillshare (there is a small fee to access it)

The book even has its very own book trailer:




Source: school library

Go! A Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design by Chip Kidd: buy it or check it out today!