Chip Kidd Quotes

• Never fall in love with an idea. They're whores: if the one you're with isn't doing the job, there's always, always, always another.

  Chip Kidd

  Falling In Love, Jobs, Technology

  77 Copy quote

• Design is a response to a specific problem. You are given a problem to solve, and then you let the problem itself tell you what your solution is.

  Chip Kidd

  Design, Problem, Given

  71 Copy quote

• If you can properly define the problem, then you've already defined the solution as well.

  Chip Kidd

  Problem, Wells, Ifs

  41 Copy quote

• A book cover is a distillation. It is a haiku of the story.

  Chip Kidd

  Inspirational, Motivational, Book

  38 Copy quote

• Design is, literally, purposeful planning. Graphic Design, then, is the form those plans will take.

  Chip Kidd

  Design, Planning, Form

  Chip Kidd (2002). “The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters”, p.107, Simon and Schuster

  38 Copy quote

• Commercial Art tries to make you buy things. Graphic Design gives you ideas.

  Chip Kidd

  Art, Ideas, Giving

  Chip Kidd (2008). “The Cheese Monkeys”, p.83, Simon and Schuster

  32 Copy quote

• Kiddies, Graphic Design, if you wield it effectively, is Power. Power to transmit ideas that change everything. Power that can destroy an entire race or save a nation from despair. In this century, Germany chose to do the former with the swastika, and America opted for the latter with Mickey Mouse and Superman.

  Chip Kidd

  Race, Ideas, America

  Chip Kidd (2002). “The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters”, p.177, Simon and Schuster

  43 Copy quote

• I had no idea what I was doing, I had no idea where I was going, but at some point I stopped — when to keep going would seem like I was going too far.

  Chip Kidd

  Ideas, Seems, No Idea

  "How Do Book Covers Tell Their Own Stories?". "TED Radio Hour" with Guy Raz, kvpr.org. June 7, 2013.

  38 Copy quote

• If you intend to die, you can do anything.

  Chip Kidd

  Can Do, Dies, Ifs

  25 Copy quote

• Limits are possibilities. ... Formal restrictions, contrary to what you might think, free you up by allowing you to concentrate on purer ideas. ... You can be crippled by too many choices, especially if you don't know what your goals are.

  Chip Kidd

  Thinking, Ideas, Goal

  Chip Kidd (2002). “The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters”, p.159, Simon and Schuster

  28 Copy quote

• Much is to be gained by eBooks: ease, convenience, portability. But something is definitely lost: tradition, a sensual experience, the comfort of thingy-ness - a little bit of humanity.

  Chip Kidd

  Inspirational, Motivational, Book

  "Chip Kidd Tells TED About The Essence Of Great Book Cover Design", www.huffingtonpost.com. April 5, 2012.

  44 Copy quote

• Life is a life-long assignment that must be constantly analyzed, clarified, figured out, and responded to appropriately.

  Chip Kidd

  Long, Long Life, Life Is

  Chip Kidd (2008). “The Learners: A Novel”, p.4, Simon and Schuster

  25 Copy quote

• Never fall in love with an idea. They're whores.

  Chip Kidd

  Falling In Love, Ideas, Design

  Chip Kidd (2008). “The Cheese Monkeys”, p.106, Simon and Schuster

  29 Copy quote

• I think too many comic book covers are way too busy, crammed with far too much information, both visual and verbal, that just becomes a dull noise.

  Chip Kidd

  Book, Thinking, Dull

  15 Copy quote

• What people really want, no matter who they are, is someone to listen to them. ... people have a lot on their minds, however trivial, and if you're simply willing to sit there like a sack of dirt and let them yammer, they will tell it to you.

  Chip Kidd

  People, Mind, Want

  23 Copy quote

• I am all for the iPad, but trust me - smelling it will get you nowhere.

  Chip Kidd

  Technology, Ipads, Trust Me

  14 Copy quote

• I often get asked, 'Is the book dead?' It hasn't happened yet. It's different than music. Music was always meant to be pure sound - it started out as pure sound and now it's pure sound again. But books started out as things. Words on paper began as words on paper. The paperback book is the best technology to deliver that information to you.

  Chip Kidd

  Book, Technology, Sound

  22 Copy quote

• Antisappointment. Anticipation colliding head-on with the certainty of its own doom.

  Chip Kidd

  Anticipation, Certainty, Doom

  14 Copy quote

• I still have a steady stream of book cover work. I'm grateful for it. Viva le book!

  Chip Kidd

  Book, Grateful, Viva

  13 Copy quote

• I think the genre of comics sometimes overtakes the medium, and people assume that they are kind of frivolous. If you have a good, strong story teller, they can be as affecting as any character in literature. Period.

  Chip Kidd

  Strong, Character, Thinking

  11 Copy quote

• Hey, have you heard that one about the difference between me, Wit, and my loutish cousin, Hilarity? No? Okay, so I walk into a bar, you see, very unassuming, and order a martini. Then the bartender, Hilarity, hauls off and squirts me in the face with a seltzer bottle, ruining my n ice new camel hair suit, dousing my monocle and my watch fob, soaking my cravat. So, do I let him have what for, and blow my top? I do not. I simply say: Sorry, I believe I said 'very dry'.

  Chip Kidd

  Cousin, Sorry, Believe

  8 Copy quote

• Yes, Garnett Grey was an Architect. Were a psychoanalyst to approach him from behind, tap his shoulder, and say 'Humanity,' Garrett'd spin and respond, without hesitation, 'Solvable'.

  Chip Kidd

  Humanity, Architect, Grey

  4 Copy quote

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