Anybody remember these speakers from SND/Boston?
A couple of follow-up notes regarding speakers you saw at SND/Boston last October…
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Dan Zedek, our host for SND/Boston, writes:
We’ve just updated the sndboston web site to include a downloadable copy of Robert Newman’s presentation on brainstorming design. It’s a bit (OK, a lot, late) but it’s great stuff from a guy who art directed everything from Entertainment Weekly to the Village Voice to Vibe to Real Simple.
You can find it here. It’s about the third one down.
Or, just walk in the front door of the SND/Boston site and wander around. There is still a lot of interesting stuff posted and linked to.
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Along these same lines, the Mercury News last week published a book review-slash-interview with our keynote speaker in Boston, publication designer Chip Kidd.
Q: Let’s address a cheerier subject: You designed “Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz,” but you didn’t gussy it up. The primitivism of Schulz’s early work came through.
A: I wanted the reader to experience the Peanuts book exactly as I did while putting it together — as if they’re sifting through his personal papers and scrapbooks and records, etc. I wanted it to be very, very personal. Not in any sensational way, but in the way that the strip itself is so uniquely affecting and yet so universal.
Q: Of the books you’ve designed, do you have a favorite?
A: There are too many at this point to choose a favorite. I would narrow it down to books that I have written/conceived and books by authors I greatly respect “” John Updike, Cormac McCarthy, David Sedaris …
The Peanuts book metioned by the reviewer, John Mark Eberhart, is truly a gem.
I recommend it even more highly than the recent Schulz biography. You can pick up the paperback version for only $13.22 at Amazon.ÂÂ
The new book that formed the peg for this story?
The Learners by Chip Kidd. Available from Amazon for $17.16.
Find the Q&A in last week’s Merc.