BOSTON, MA.- Chip Kidd, the most celebrated book cover designer in the world, is contributing a poster design to the Boston Book Festival, which holds its inaugural event in Boston’s Copley Square on Oct. 24, 2009. His poster design will be unveiled at an event on Sept. 14, 2009 at the Boston Public Library, which will also serve as a fundraiser for the non-profit festival. The poster will be used to promote the festival, and collectible prints will be sold online at bostonbookfest.org and at the festival. More details about the unveiling event to follow.
Kidd, who has been called by USA Today “the closest thing to a graphic design rock star,” has designed covers for authors like Cormac McCarthy, John Updike, David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs and Michael Crichton, in his job as an associate art director for publishing giant Knopf. He also supervises graphic novels for Pantheon. His work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Eye, Print, Entertainment Weekly, The New Republic, Time, Graphis, New York, and ID magazines, and he is a regular contributor of visual commentary to the Op-Ed page of The New York Times. He has authored two works of fiction, and recently announced that he will create a full-length Batman story for DC Comics.
Said Kidd, “I am delighted to be designing the poster for a new book festival in a city that has had a huge influence on our country's literary history and is at the forefront of innovation around books.”
“We are excited and honored to have our first poster designed by Chip,” said Boston Book Festival Founding President Deborah Z Porter. “His support, and the support of everyone from Mayor Menino to State Street and all of our partners and participating publishers and authors shows how needed and anticipated this festival is.”
Members of the design community have taken notice of Kidd’s involvement. John Maeda, the new President of the Rhode Island School of Design commented, “Chip Kidd's legendary stature as the ‘Batman of designers’ indicates the powerful creative energy brewing at the Boston Book Festival.”
The Boston Book Festival will take place Oct. 24 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the Boston Public Library, Old South Church, Trinity Church and outdoors in Copley Square. Events will include presentations, and panels featuring internationally-known fiction and non-fiction writers, scholars, critics and commentators; a focus on technology as it relates to reading; programming for children, teens and families; writing workshops and word-based competitions; and theatre, spoken word and music performances.
Panels and events being planned include Books Without Pages: Discussing the Future of Books; Eat Your Words: Food Writers and Chefs; Boston Noir; American Writer Idol: Literary Agents Critique Unpublished Work; We Are the Champions: Sports writers and their love of the game. More panels and events will be announced in the coming months. Confirmed authors include Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, The Given Day), Barbara Lynch (No. 9 Park, Stir), Ken Burns (The Civil War, The National Parks), Joseph Finder (Vanished, High Crimes); Elinor Lipman (Then She Found Me, The Family Man), Anita Diamant (The Red Tent), David Pogue (New York Times), Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Lincoln on Race and Slavery), Tom Perrotta (Little Children), Elizabeth Nunez (Prospero’s Daughter, Anna In-Between) and Stephen L. Carter (Emperor of Ocean Park), with many more to be announced.
