creativiteach

There are few places so full of delights as a good bookstore. Recently, I had the chance to explore the newest of Ann Arbor’s bookstores, Literati, and I headed right to my favorite place—the children’s section.

There were lots of treasures, but my favorite this week is Chip Kidd’s Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design. Kidd is a phenomenon in book design, having created more than 1000 book covers, including the iconic cover to Jurassic Park.

Go made me want to design—which is no small trick considering I’m still a recovering art/design-phobic (I love art, I’ve just been afraid to make it.) The book illustrates basic design principles, with striking and helpful illustrations. Now I understand a bit more about how form, typography, content and concept work together. For a young designer this is an ideal “how to” book, clear, interesting, and inspiring.

The book ends with ten design projects that range from experimenting with changing the colors of common objects (think red bananas and blue oranges) to creating a brand for your own identity. Just what would I look like as a logo? What fun to figure that out. Kidd suggests that budding designers send their creations to the book’s website gothebook.com.

At the website you can read why Kidd decided to write a book for young people or enter the Book Cover Challenge by redesigning a cover for a favorite book. Go-the-Book has me looking at the book covers around me with new eyes. Let it do it for your students as well—and if you create your own logos, I’d love to post some!