April 16, 2013
7:30 pm
Bismarck State College
Sidney J Lee Auditorium

Chip Kidd is a Designer/Writer in New York City (and Stonington, CT, and Palm Beach, FL). His book cover designs for Alfred A. Knopf, where he has worked non-stop since 1986, have helped create a revolution in the art of American book packaging. He is the recipient of the National Design Award for Communications, as well at the Use of Photography in Design award from the International Center of Photography. And a bunch of other stuff. Kidd has published two novels, The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners, as well as Batman: Death By Design, an original graphic novel published by DC Comics and illustrated by Dave Taylor. He is also the author of several books about comics, notably ‘Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz’, ‘Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross’, ‘Batman: Animated’, ‘Jack Cole and Plasticman’ (with Art Spiegelman), ‘Batman Collected’, ‘Shazam! The Golden Age of the World’s Mightiest Mortal’, ‘Bat-Manga: The Secret History of Batman in Japan.’ He is also the co-author and designer of ‘True Prep,’ the sequel to the beloved ‘Official Preppy Handbook.’ A distinguished and prolific Lecturer, Kidd has spoken at Princeton, Yale, Harvard, RISD and a zillion other places. His 2012 TED talk has garnered over 400,000 hits as of this writing, and is cited as one of the ‘funniest of the year.’

The Graphic Design and Communications Department production room always has scraps of paper covered with doodles laying around. Much of the drawing takes place when students are waiting for classmates or just visiting with others. Some of the drawings are instantly recognizable based on the the illustration style.

The art is great, but it’s scattered everywhere and ends up in the trash. The solution to the problem – a community sketchbook. This traveling sketchbook will hopefully get filled with drawings and designs and make its way around the department. If it’s successful, occasional images from it will be posted. Freshmen Lacey Bordeaux got the book started by illustrating the cover. If you are in the GDC area, feel free to grab the sketchbook and leave your mark.

Today the students will be learning how to control depth of field in their photos. I really enjoy this lecture and assignment since it is a real “breakthrough” concept for many students. It helps them understand the value of working in manual mode and increases their ability to shoot an image the way they imagine it.

The Freshmen Graphic Design and Communications students are learning about exposure and how to balance ISO, shutter speed and aperture to create solid photos. This assignment was about using perspective to add interest to your images.