Judge This

Chip Kidd

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781471138928
• eBook ISBN: 9781471138935
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Part of the TED series: Judge This!First impressions are everything. They dictate whether something stands out, how we engage with it, whether we buy it, and how strongly we feel. This is especially true when it comes to design. And design is all around us, secretly shaping our world in ways we rarely recognise. Except if you yourself are a designer, like Chip Kidd. In Judge This, the reader travels through a day in the life of renowned designer Chip Kidd as he takes in first impressions of all kinds. We follow this visual journey with Kidd as he encounters and engages with everyday design, breaking down the good, the bad, the absurd and the brilliant as only a designer can. From the design of the paper you read in the morning to the subway ticket machine to the books you browse to the smartphone you use to the packaging for the chocolate bar you buy as an afternoon treat, Kidd will reveal the hidden secrets behind each of the design choices, with a healthy dose of humour, expertise and, of course, judgment as he goes.Kidd's observations on the power of first impressions resonate well beyond the objects he's examining. The simple (and often hilarious) wisdom he offers holds meaning for anyone in business, who needs to make a first impression on colleagues or customers. His visual tour of the world around him will hold and interest anyone with a sense of curiosity about popular culture, design and New York.

What’s going to happen next?

Well, that’s one of the biggest mysteries of all, isn’t it? Fortune cookies have been around for the past hundred years, and we hold out hope, after a Chinese meal, that they will tell us what to expect. Or at least we are entertained by them, spurred on to think about what they might mean. On the one hand, it’s silly; on the other, it’s possibly something to think about.

The design of the fortunes is a fascinating combination of simplicity and reduction that enlivens the theater of the mind and its infinite conjectures on the possibilities of fate. And all from one sentence on a tiny slip of paper!

And then, of course, there’s interpretation: the fortunes are deliberately vague, so that we draw from our personal experiences in order to bring an explanation to them.

First impression: What does this mean, and how does it apply to me?

PROJECT:

ALL THE BEAUTY YOU WILL EVER NEED
BY DAVID SEDARIS

AN ESSAY COLLECTION

This was the book that eventually became When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and it is the only jacket in this volume that didn’t actually get produced. As sometimes happens in publishing, the author was weighing several different titles, and finally selected a different one.

Such a change also, of course, affects the cover design process and how I adapt my methods. The original title, All the Beauty You Will Ever Need, didn’t directly apply to the content of any of the essays in the book, so in that sense I was free to think about an original context for the phrase. A Chinese fortune cookie seemed apt, as it provided a visual that I thought most everyone could recognize, yet had an attending sense of mystery. Note that the form of the slip of paper is so strong and recognizable that I didn’t need to include cracked bits of cookie around it.

When the final title became what it is, I tried using it with the same design scheme, but it just didn’t work—I think mainly because fortune cookies never tell you anything as shocking as the fact that you’re on fire, right now.

David found a painting by van Gogh of a skeleton smoking, and that was great—the subject had already been through it all.

And so, yet again . . .

I find that the older I get (I turned fifty during the making of this book), the clearer I want things to be. I think this is a natural symptom of maturation—as we age, mysteries pile up, and they’re usually not the fun ones:

Just how long do I have?

Why do some people get what they deserve, and others don’t?

Why are certain problems so easy to solve, while others are totally impossible?

Will they ever, ever bring working jetpacks to the marketplace?

Whoever you are, whatever you do for a living, you have problems to solve. I hope that this book has given you a little something to think about in terms of how you might proceed to do so. Ask yourself: What is this problem I’m trying to solve? How do I define it? What are its components? What is the goal I’m trying to achieve with its solution?

And remember . . .

As we go on, Mystery becomes more important, too, because it helps us deal with things we can’t understand.

It is fueled by faith: belief in ourselves, our friends, “the system,” humanity in general, and whatever else it is we need to believe in. There’s a reason we don’t want great magic tricks explained.

Mystery is also valuable as a coping mechanism—the things that are all too clear are piling up, too:

Life is short.

Love can’t be taken for granted.

Everything has a cost.

Just holding on to something doesn’t mean it won’t go away.

You can try to solve everything, but if you can’t, that’s okay. As long as you’ve tried your best.

And . . .

So: what’s clear to you?

And what isn’t?

Those are not unimportant questions. Ditto these:

Are you clear to others when you need to be?

Do you understand how to use clarity and mystery, and when each is necessary?

Do you pay attention to how you are perceived by the world, no matter how big or small that world is?

Which brings us back to first impressions, a fitting way to end this little meditation. With this book, I’ve underscored the importance of healthy judgment. But I’ve also tried to introduce you to a few ideas (via my ideas, I am well aware) that might encourage you to look at things a little differently than you used to.

Did I succeed?

You be the judge . . .

Thank you:

Michelle Quint,

June Cohen,

Susan Lehman,

Gina Barnett,

Geoff Spear,

J. D. McClatchy,

Chee Pearlman,

David Rockwell,

Chris Anderson.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CHIP KIDD is a designer and writer living in New York City. His book cover designs for Alfred A. Knopf, where he has worked nonstop since 1986, have helped create a revolution in the art of American book packaging. He is the recipient of the National Design Award for Communication Design, as well as the Use of Photography in Design Award from the International Center of Photography. Kidd has published two novels, The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners. A distinguished and prolific lecturer, Kidd has spoken at Princeton, Yale, Harvard, RISD, and a zillion other places.

WATCH CHIP KIDD’S TED TALK

Chip Kidd’s TED Talk, now available for free at TED.com, is the companion to Judge This.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication page
• Epigraph page
• CONTENTS
• So, what is your first impression of this book?
• Well, you’re still reading, so it couldn’t have been that bad.
• When should you be clear?
• When should you be mysterious?
• The Mysteri-o-meter.
• Help me organize my life, please.
• Nice package.
• Use only as directed . . . but for what?
• Bite.
• Block that billing!
• Hot impression.
• Call Security!
• So cool.
• Fully adjustable.
• Expect delays.
• Counting down . . .
• X marks the teeny, tiny, hard-to-find spot.
• Picking up.
• Don’t get me started. Or do.
• Where the toys are.
• Lead us not into Penn Station.
• How refreshing.
• Um . . .
• Good morning.
• Lather up.
• Get your balance.
• How much?
• Like five fingers.
• I’ll have . . .
• Can you read the top line?
• Say what? Say that.
• Where am I?
• CMYK
• Smoked.
• Have we Met?
• Jolly Roger.
• Good-bye.
• Fender bender.
• What’s going to happen next?
• Acknowledgements
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• RELATED TALKS ON TED.COM
• ABOUT TED BOOKS
• ABOUT TED