Brooklyn Book Festival and Chip Kidd debut official poster art

Artist, Author and Art Director Reveals New Imagery for NYC’s Largest Literary Event

July 25, 2016 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Chip Kidd’s images will be printed on limited-edition BKBF tote bags and posters available for sale to festival attendees. Image by Chip Kidd, courtesy the Brooklyn Book Festival

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The Brooklyn Book Festival (BKBF), New York City’s largest free literary festival, has unveiled two new custom images created by award-winning graphic designer and writer Chip Kidd. From posters to totes to online portals and social media streams, the 2016 Brooklyn Book Festival will introduce branded elements featuring Kidd’s colorful urban design: the image of a young woman reading a book emblazoned with the Brooklyn Bridge.

“A rock star of book design, [Chipp Kidd] is the perfect artist to articulate the vibe of New York City’s hip, smart and diverse book festival,” said Carolyn Greer, co-producer and president of BKBF.

“As a fan (and past participant) of the Brooklyn Book Festival, it was an honor to be asked to create the image for its first art poster,” Kidd said. “My thinking was this: just as books are gateways to amazing places, characters and ideas, the Brooklyn Bridge is such a gateway to one of the most vibrant, diverse and enthralling places on Earth. So I decided to combine the two. Having gotten my professional start in Brooklyn 30 years ago, it is thrilling to contribute this way to one of its most extraordinary cultural celebrations.”

Based in New York City, Kidd has created groundbreaking book jacket designs for Alfred A. Knopf and elevated the design form for close to three decades. He has worked with hundreds of writers, including John Updike, Katharine Hepburn, Cormac McCarthy, Henry Louis Gates Jr., James Ellroy, Karen Russell, Michael Crichton, David Sedaris, Sharon Olds, Orhan Pamuk, Paul Simon and Neil Gaiman. As an editor and art director for Pantheon Graphic novels, he’s worked with and published some of the very best cartoonists in the world. Kidd is the recipient of the National Design Award for Communications, and his TED Talk has been viewed more than 1.3 million times.

According to “TED Radio Hour,” which is broadcast on NPR, “Kidd’s book jacket designs spawned a revolution in the art of American book packaging. You know a Chip Kidd book when you see it — precisely because it’s unexpected, non-formulaic and perfectly right for the text within.” USA Today described the artist simply: “the closest thing to a rock star.”

Kidd has also 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. Kidd has also authored numerous books about comics, notably “Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross,” “Batman: Animated, Jack Cole and “Plasticman” (with Art Spiegelman) and his most recent, 2015’s “Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz.”

Kidd’s images will be printed on limited-edition BKBF tote bags and posters available for sale to festival attendees. Donors to BKBF will also have the option of receiving a bag. All proceeds will support the festival.

BKBF attracts tens of thousands from around the world to experience spirited discussions between emerging and iconic writers and a lively Literary Marketplace. This fall’s week-long festival begins on Sept. 12 with five weeknights of literature themed “Bookend” programs presented all over New York City. BKBF Children’s Day is Saturday, Sept. 17 and will feature theatrical performances, a dueling draw-off, workshops, picture book and young readers stages and a Literary Marketplace just for kids are all part of the day’s celebration of childhood reading.

The flagship 14-stage BKBF takes place Sunday, Sept. 18. On festival day, 300 writers of beloved works of fiction and nonfiction, poetry and graphic novels will participate in panels, readings and other creative performances of their work.

This year, the festival includes Margaret Atwood, with her first graphic novel, as well as Chester Brown, Phoebe Gloeckner, Sarah Glidden, Kyle Baker (in his first return to BKBF since its beginning), Faith Erin Hicks, George O’Connor, Ben Katchor, Marjorie Liu and MariNaomi, among other prominent artists. This makes it all the more fitting that an artist so deeply involved in comics and graphic arts undertake BKBF’s first festival image.