SpeakerChip Kidd is a graphic designer and writer living in New York City and Stonington, Connecticut.
His first novel, The Cheese Monkeys, was a national bestseller and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2001. His first book, Batman Collected, was awarded the Design Distinction award from ID magazinein 1996. He is the co-author, with Paul Dini, and designer of the two-time Eisner award-winning Batman Animated, released in 1998. He is the editor-at-large for Pantheon, where he has overseen the publication of Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Dan Clowes’s David Boring, and the definitive book of the art of Charles Schulz, Peanuts (designed, edited and with commentary by Kidd). He has also written about graphic design and popular culture for McSweeney’s, Vogue, The New York Times, The New York Observer, Entertainment Weekly, Details, 2WICE, The New York Post, ID and Print.
His book jacket designs for Alfred A Knopf (where he is associate art director) have helped spawn a revolution in the art of American book packaging. His work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Eye, Print, Entertainment Weekly, The New Republic, Time, Graphis, New York and ID, and he is a regular contributor of visual commentary to the Op-Ed page of The New York Times.
His designs have been described as “monstrously ugly” (John Updike), “apparently obvious” (William Boyd), “faithful flat-earth rendering” (Don DeLillo), “surprisingly elegant” (AS Mehta), “a distinguished parochial comic balding Episcopal priest” (Allan Gurganus), “two colors plus a sash” (Martin Amis) and “not a piece of hype. My book was lucky.” (Robert Hughes).
Kidd is also the lead vocalist, percussionist, lyricist and co-songwriter in artbreak, a band described as “the New Pornographers meet The Cars” (Unbeige).