Design Something Everyday 13/365

I was at the park with my kids play­ing in the sand box and I recalled this quote from Chip Kidd’s won­der­ful novel The Cheese Mon­keys: A Novel in Two Semes­ters: “Design is pur­pose­ful plan­ning… Graphic design is the form those plans will take.” Between the juice boxes and push­ing kids on the swing I tried to rep­re­sent that with sand, sticks and pebbles.

Any­one who is inter­ested in lit­er­a­ture or good sto­ry­telling would like The Cheese Monkey’s, but for design­ers, I highly rec­om­mend Kidd’s book for many rea­sons, first it is a grip­ping tale of Happy (the pro­tag­o­nist) dis­cov­er­ing him­self and the world he inhab­its. Sec­ond, the host of char­ac­ters that Kidd cre­ates are unfor­get­table, espe­cially Himillsy Dodd and Win­ter Sor­beck. Finally, the book is full of great nuggets about graphic design. That last point is some­thing design­ers should enjoy, or at least pro­voke some food for thought. It isn’t often that graphic design gets so elo­quently dis­cussed, defended and crit­i­cized in any form, let alone a novel. Hav­ing the his­tory, pur­pose and prac­tice of graphic design exam­ined in fic­tion is refreshing.

Links:

• The Cheese Mon­keys by Chip Kidd
• The Learn­ers by Chip Kidd (his fol­low up novel, con­tin­u­ing the adven­tures of Happy)
• Good is Dead, Chip Kidd’s Blog

Here are some great interviews/talks by and with Chip Kidd:

Related posts:

1. A Funny Chip Kidd Video
2. More Cool Chip Kidd Videos
3. Great Read: Graphic Design Cookbook