The hilarious art of book design | Chip Kidd

Translator: Morten Kelder Skouboe Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

Hi.

Hej.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

I did that for two reasons.

Det gjorde jeg af to årsager.

First of all, I wanted to give you

Først, fordi jeg ville give jer

a good visual first impression.

et godt visuelt indtryk.

But the main reason I did it is that

Men hovedårsagen til, jeg gjorde det, er at

that's what happens to me when I'm forced to wear

det er, hvad der sker med mig, når jeg tvinges til at bære

a Lady Gaga skanky mic.

en billig Lady Gaga mikrofon.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

I'm used to a stationary mic.

Jeg er vant til en stationær mikrofon.

It's the sensible shoe of public address.

Det er højtaleranlæggenes svar på praktiske sko.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

But you clamp this thing on my head, and something happens.

Men I smækker denne på hovedet af mig, og noget sker.

I just become skanky.

Jeg bliver bare billig.

(Laughter) So I'm sorry about that.

(Latter) Så undskyld for det.

And I'm already off-message.

Og jeg er allerede afsporet.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Ladies and gentlemen,

Mine damer og herrer,

I have devoted the past 25 years of my life

jeg har dedikeret de sidste 25 år af mit liv

to designing books.

til at designe bøger.

("Yes, BOOKS. You know, the bound volumes with ink on paper.

"Ja, BØGER. De indbundne bind med blæk på papir.

You cannot turn them off with a switch.

De kan ikke slukkes på en kontakt.

Tell your kids.")

Sig det til jeres børn."

It all sort of started as a benign mistake,

Det startede alt sammen som en heldig fejl,

like penicillin. (Laughter)

ligesom penicillin. (Latter)

What I really wanted

Hvad jeg virkelig ville,

was to be a graphic designer

var at være grafisk designer

at one of the big design firms in New York City.

hos et af de store designfirmaer i New York City.

But upon arrival there,

Men ved ankomsten

in the fall of 1986, and doing a lot of interviews,

i efteråret 1986 og efter en masse jobsamtaler

I found that the only thing I was offered

fandt jeg, at det eneste, jeg blev tilbudt,

was to be Assistant to the Art Director at Alfred A. Knopf,

var at være assistent for den Kunstneriske Leder hos Alfred A. Knopf,

a book publisher.

et bogforlag.

Now I was stupid,

Jeg var dum,

but not so stupid that I turned it down.

men ikke så dum, at jeg afslog.

I had absolutely no idea

Jeg havde ingen anelse om,

what I was about to become part of,

hvad jeg skulle blive del af,

and I was incredibly lucky.

og jeg var utroligt heldig.

Soon, it had occurred to me what my job was.

Snart gik det op for mig, hvad mit job var.

My job was to ask this question:

Mit job var at stille dette spørgsmål:

"What do the stories look like?"

"Hvordan ser historierne ud?"

Because that is what Knopf is.

For det er, hvad Knopf er.

It is the story factory, one of the very best in the world.

Det er historiefabrikken, en af verdens bedste.

We bring stories to the public.

Vi bringer historier til offentligheden.

The stories can be anything,

Historierne kan være alt muligt,

and some of them are actually true.

og nogle af dem er faktisk sande.

But they all have one thing in common:

Men de har alle én ting til fælles:

They all need to look like something.

De skal alle ligne noget.

They all need a face.

De har alle brug for et ansigt.

Why? To give you a first impression

Hvorfor? For at give jer et førstehåndsindtryk

of what you are about to get into.

af, hvad I kan vente jer.

A book designer gives form to content,

En bogdesigner giver form til indhold

but also

og samtidig

manages a very careful balance between the two.

styrer en meget fin balance mellem de to.

Now, the first day

Nå, første dag

of my graphic design training at Penn State University,

på min grafisk designeruddannelse på Penn State University

the teacher, Lanny Sommese, came into the room

kom læreren Lanny Sommese ind i lokalet,

and he drew a picture of an apple on the blackboard,

og han tegnede et billede af et æble på tavlen

and wrote the word "Apple" underneath,

og skrev ordet "Æble" nedenunder,

and he said, "OK. Lesson one. Listen up."

og han sagde, "OK. Første lektion. Hør efter."

And he covered up the picture and he said,

Og han dækkede billedet og han sagde,

"You either say this," and then he covered up the word,

"Enten siger I dette," og så dækkede han ordet,

"or you show this.

"eller også viser I dette.

But you don't do this."

Men I gør ikke dette."

Because this is treating your audience like a moron.

For dette er at behandle jeres modtager som en tåbe.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

And they deserve better.

Og de fortjener bedre.

And lo and behold, soon enough,

Og se engang, meget snart

I was able to put this theory to the test

kunne jeg afprøve denne teori

on two books that I was working on for Knopf.

på to bøger, som jeg arbejdede på for Knopf.

The first was Katharine Hepburn's memoirs,

Den første var Katharine Hepburns memoirer,

and the second was a biography of Marlene Dietrich.

og den anden var en biografi af Marlene Dietrich.

Now the Hepburn book

Hepburn-bogen

was written in a very conversational style,

var skrevet som en samtale,

it was like she was sitting across a table telling it all to you.

det var som om, hun sad overfor en og talte til en.

The Dietrich book was an observation

Dietrich-bogen var en observation

by her daughter; it was a biography.

af hendes datter; det var en biografi.

So the Hepburn story is words

Så Hepburn-historien er ord,

and the Dietrich story is pictures, and so we did this.

og Dietrich-historien er billeder, og derfor gjorde vi dette.

So there you are.

Værsgo.

Pure content and pure form, side by side.

Ren indhold og ren form, side om side.

No fighting, ladies.

Bevar roen, de damer.

("What's a Jurassic Park?")

"Hvad er en Jurassic Park?"

Now, what is the story here?

Hvad er historien her?

Someone

Nogen

is re-engineering dinosaurs

genopfinder dinosaurer

by extracting their DNA

ved at udtrække deres DNA

from prehistoric amber.

fra forhistorisk rav.

Genius!

Genialt!

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Now, luckily for me,

Heldigvis for mig

I live and work in New York City,

bor og arbejder jeg i New York City,

where there are plenty of dinosaurs.

hvor der er rigeligt med dinosaurer.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

So,

Så,

I went to the Museum of Natural History,

jeg tog på Naturhistorisk Museum,

and I checked out the bones, and I went to the gift shop,

og jeg så på knoglerne, og jeg gik i souvenirbutikken,

and I bought a book.

og jeg købte en bog.

And I was particularly taken with this page of the book,

Og jeg blev især slået af denne side af bogen

and more specifically the lower right-hand corner.

og mere præcist det nederste højre hjørne.

Now I took this diagram,

Jeg tog dette diagram,

and I put it in a Photostat machine,

og jeg lagde det i en fotostat,

(Laughter)

(Latter)

and I took a piece of tracing paper,

og jeg tog et stykke kalkerpapir,

and I taped it over the Photostat

og jeg tapede det over fotostaten

with a piece of Scotch tape -- stop me if I'm going too fast --

med et stykke tape -- stop mig, hvis det går for hurtigt --

(Laughter) --

(Latter)

and then I took a Rapidograph pen --

og så tog jeg en Rapidograph pen --

explain it to the youngsters --

forklar det for de unge --

(Laughter)

(Latter)

and I just started to reconstitute the dinosaur.

og jeg begyndte bare at genskabe dinosauren.

I had no idea what I was doing,

Jeg anede ikke, hvad jeg havde gang i,

I had no idea where I was going,

jeg anede ikke, hvor jeg ville ende,

but at some point, I stopped --

men på et tidspunkt stoppede jeg --

when to keep going would seem like I was going too far.

da at fortsætte ville være at gå for vidt.

And what I ended up with was a graphic representation

Og hvad jeg endte med, var en grafisk repræsentation

of us seeing this animal coming into being.

af os, der ser dette dyr i gang med at blive skabt.

We're in the middle of the process.

Vi er i midten af processen.

And then I just threw some typography on it.

Og så smed jeg bare noget typografi på det.

Very basic stuff,

Meget basalt,

slightly suggestive of public park signage.

en smule lig offentlig park-skiltning.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Everybody in house loved it,

Alle i bygningen elskede det,

and so off it goes to the author.

og derfor af sted til forfatteren.

And even back then,

Og selv dengang

Michael was on the cutting edge.

var Michael på forkanten.

("Michael Crichton responds by fax:")

"Michael Crichton svarer pr. fax."

("Wow! Fucking Fantastic Jacket")

"Wow! Fucking Fantastisk Omslag"

(Laughter) (Applause)

(Latter) (Bifald)

That was a relief to see that pour out of the machine.

Det var en lettelse at se det komme ud af maskinen.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

I miss Michael.

Jeg savner Michael.

And sure enough, somebody from MCA Universal

Og sandelig ikke om nogen fra MCA Universal

calls our legal department to see if they can

ringede til vores juridiske afdeling for at høre, om de kunne

maybe look into buying the rights to the image,

kigge på at købe rettighederne til billedet,

just in case they might want to use it.

hvis nu de ville bruge det.

Well, they used it.

De brugte det.

(Laughter) (Applause)

(Latter) (Bifald)

And I was thrilled.

Og jeg var spændt.

We all know it was an amazing movie,

Vi ved alle, de var en fantastisk film,

and it was so interesting to see it

og det var så interessant at se den

go out into the culture and become this phenomenon

gå ud i kulturen og blive dette fænomen

and to see all the different permutations of it.

og at se alle de forskellige afskygninger af det.

But not too long ago,

Men for ikke ret lang tid siden

I came upon this on the Web.

faldt jeg over dette på nettet.

No, that is not me.

Nej, det er ikke mig.

But whoever it is,

Men hvem end det er,

I can't help but thinking they woke up one day like,

kan jeg ikke lade være at tro, de vågnede en dag og,

"Oh my God, that wasn't there last night. Ooooohh!

"Åh Gud, den var der ikke i går nat. Ooooohh!

I was so wasted."

Jeg var så fuld."

(Laughter)

(Latter)

But if you think about it, from my head

Men hvis man tænker over det, fra mit hoved

to my hands to his leg.

til mine hænder til hans ben.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

That's a responsibility.

Det er et ansvar.

And it's a responsibility that I don't take lightly.

Og det er et ansvar, som jeg ikke tager let på.

The book designer's responsibility is threefold:

Bogdesignerens ansvar er trefoldigt:

to the reader, to the publisher and, most of all, to the author.

over for læseren, forlaget og mest af alt forfatteren.

I want you to look at the author's book

Jeg vil have jer til at se på forfatterens bog

and say, "Wow! I need to read that."

og sige, "Wow! Jeg må læse den."

David Sedaris is one of my favorite writers,

David Sedaris er en af mine yndlingsskribenter,

and the title essay

og titelessayet

in this collection is about his trip to a nudist colony.

i denne samling handler om hans tur til en nudistkoloni.

And the reason he went is because

Og grunden til, han tog derhen, er

he had a fear of his body image,

han frygtede sit kropsbillede,

and he wanted to explore what was underlying that.

og han ville udforske, hvad der lå til grund for det.

For me, it was simply an excuse to design a book

For mig var det bare en undskyldning for at designe en bog,

that you could literally take the pants off of.

som man bogstaveligt talt kunne tage bukserne af.

But when you do,

Men når man gør det,

you don't get what you expect.

får man ikke, hvad man forventer.

You get something that goes much deeper than that.

Man får noget, der går meget dybere end det.

And David especially loved this design

Og især David elskede dette design,

because at book signings, which he does a lot of,

fordi ved bogsigneringer, hvilket han gør meget i,

he could take a magic marker and do this.

kunne han tage en tus og gøre dette.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Hello!

Halløj!

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Augusten Burroughs wrote a memoir

Augusten Burroughs skrev en biografi

called ["Dry"], and it's about his time in rehab.

kaldet ["Dry"] ("Tør"), og den handler om hans tid i afvænning.

In his 20s, he was a hotshot ad executive,

I hans 20'ere var han en stor reklamechef,

and as Mad Men has told us, a raging alcoholic.

og som Mad Men har fortalt os, en alkoholiker.

He did not think so, however,

Det mente han dog ikke,

but his coworkers did an intervention and they said,

men hans kollegaer skar igennem og sagde,

"You are going to rehab, or you will be fired and you will die."

"Du skal på afvænning, eller du bliver fyret, og så dør du."

Now to me, this was always going to be a typographic solution,

For mig skulle dette hele tiden være en typografisk løsning,

what I would call the opposite of Type 101.

hvad jeg kalder det modsatte af Skrift 101.

What does that mean?

Hvad betyder det?

Usually on the first day of Introduction to Typography,

Som regel på første dag i Introduktion til Typografi

you get the assignment of, select a word

får man en opgave, der lyder, vælg et ord

and make it look like what it says it is. So that's Type 101, right?

og få det til at ligne, hvad det siger, det er. Så det er Skrift 101.

Very simple stuff.

Meget simpelt.

This is going to be the opposite of that.

Dette bliver det modsatte af det.

I want this book to look like it's lying to you,

Jeg ville have denne bog til at ligne, den lyver for dig,

desperately and hopelessly, the way an alcoholic would.

desperat og håbløs, måden en alkoholiker ville.

The answer was the most low-tech thing you can imagine.

Svaret var det mest lavteknologiske, man kan forestille sig.

I set up the type, I printed it out on an Epson printer

Jeg satte skriften, jeg printede det på en Epson printer

with water-soluble ink, taped it to the wall

med vandopløselig blæk, tapede det til væggen

and threw a bucket of water at it. Presto!

og smed en spand vand på det. Vupti!

Then when we went to press,

Så gik vi til pressen,

the printer put a spot gloss on the ink

printeren satte en pletglans på blækket,

and it really looked like it was running.

og det lignede virkelig, det løb.

Not long after it came out, Augusten was waylaid in an airport

Ikke længe efter den udkom lå Augusten på lur i en lufthavn,

and he was hiding out in the bookstore

og han gemte sig i boghandleren

spying on who was buying his books.

og udspionerede, hvem der købte hans bøger.

And this woman came up to it,

Og en kvinde kommer hen til den,

and she squinted, and she took it to the register,

og hun hoppede, og hun tog den til ham i kassen,

and she said to the man behind the counter, "This one's ruined."

og hun sagde til manden bag disken, "Den her er ødelagt."

(Laughter)

(Latter)

And the guy behind the counter said, "I know, lady. They all came in that way."

Og fyren bag disken sagde, "Jeg ved det, frue. Sådan kom de alle."

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Now, that's a good printing job.

Se det er et godt stykke printarbejde.

A book cover

Et bogomslag

is a distillation.

er en destillation.

It is a haiku,

Det er en haiku,

if you will, of the story.

om man vil, af historien.

This particular story

Lige denne historie

by Osama Tezuka

af Osama Tezuka

is his epic life of the Buddha,

er hans episke Buddhas liv,

and it's eight volumes in all. But the best thing is

og den er otte bind i alt. Men det bedste er,

when it's on your shelf, you get a shelf life

når den er på din hylde, får man et hyldebillede

of the Buddha, moving from one age to the next.

af Buddha, der bevæger sig fra en alder til næste.

All of these solutions

Alle disse løsninger

derive their origins from the text of the book,

afleder deres udgangspunkt fra bogens tekst,

but once the book designer has read the text,

men når først bogdesigneren har læst teksten,

then he has to be an interpreter

må han være fortolker

and a translator.

og oversætter.

This story was a real puzzle.

Denne historie var en ægte gåde.

This is what it's about.

Dette er, hvad den handler om.

("Intrigue and murder among 16th century Ottoman court painters.")

"Intriger og mord blandt 16. århundredes osmanniske hofmalere."

(Laughter)

(Latter)

All right, so I got a collection of the paintings together

Jeg fik en samling af billederne sammen,

and I looked at them and I deconstructed them

og jeg så på dem, og jeg dekonstruerede dem,

and I put them back together.

og jeg satte dem sammen igen.

And so, here's the design, right?

Og her er designet.

And so here's the front and the spine, and it's flat.

Her er forsiden og ryggen, og den er flad.

But the real story starts when you wrap it around a book and put it on the shelf.

Men den virkelige historie begynder, når man slynger det om en bog og sætter den på hylden.

Ahh! We come upon them,

Ahh! Vi støder ind i dem,

the clandestine lovers. Let's draw them out.

de hemmelige elskere. Lad os tage dem ud.

Huhh! They've been discovered by the sultan.

Åh! De er blevet opdaget af sultanen.

He will not be pleased.

Han bliver ikke glad.

Huhh! And now the sultan is in danger.

Åh! Og nu er sultanen i fare.

And now, we have to open it up

Og nu må vi åbne den

to find out what's going to happen next.

for at finde ud af, hvad der skal nu vil ske.

Try experiencing that on a Kindle.

Prøv at opleve det på en Kindle.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Don't get me started.

Hold mig fra det emne.

Seriously.

Seriøst.

Much is to be gained by eBooks:

Meget kan opnås med e-bøger:

ease, convenience, portability.

Lethed, bekvemmelighed, portabilitet.

But something is definitely lost: tradition,

Men noget tabes: Tradition,

a sensual experience, the comfort of thingy-ness --

en sensuel oplevelse, behageligheden af ting-hed --

a little bit of humanity.

en lille smule menneskehed.

Do you know what John Updike used to do

Ved I, hvad John Updike plejede at gøre

the first thing when he would get a copy

som det første, når han modtog et eksemplar

of one of his new books from Alfred A. Knopf?

af en af hans bøger fra Alfred A. Knopf?

He'd smell it.

Han lugtede til den.

Then he'd run his hand over the rag paper,

Så løb han hånden over siderne,

and the pungent ink and the deckled edges of the pages.

og den kradsende blæk og sidernes bøttekant.

All those years, all those books, he never got tired of it.

Alle de år, alle de bøger, han blev aldrig træt af det.

Now, I am all for the iPad,

Jeg er vild med iPaden,

but trust me -- smelling it will get you nowhere.

men tro mig -- lugte til den giver dig ingenting.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Now the Apple guys are texting,

Nu skriver Apple-fyrene,

"Develop odor emission plug-in."

"Udvikl duftgivende plug-in."

(Laughter)

(Latter)

And the last story I'm going to talk about is quite a story.

Den sidste historie, jeg vil tale om, er noget af en historie.

A woman

En kvinde

named Aomame in 1984 Japan finds herself

kaldet Aomame i 1984 i Japan finder sig selv

negotiating down a spiral staircase

på vej ned ad en spiraltrappe

off an elevated highway. When she gets to the bottom,

fra en hævet motorvej. Da hun når bunden,

she can't help but feel that, all of a sudden,

kan hun ikke lade være at føle, at pludselig

she's entered a new reality

er hun i en ny virkelighed,

that's just slightly different from the one that she left,

der bare er lidt anderledes fra den hun forlod,

but very similar, but different.

men meget lig, men anderledes.

And so, we're talking about parallel planes of existence,

Så derfor taler vi parallelle eksistensplaner,

sort of like a book jacket and the book that it covers.

lidt som bogomslag og bogen, det dækker.

So how do we show this?

Så hvordan viser vi dette?

We go back to Hepburn and Dietrich, but now we merge them.

Vi går tilbage til Hepburn og Dietrich, men nu forener vi dem.

So we're talking about different planes, different pieces of paper.

Så vi taler om forskellige planer, forskellige stykker papir.

So this is on a semi-transparent piece of velum.

Så denne er på en halvgennemsigtig hinde.

It's one part of the form and content.

Den er en del af form og indhold.

When it's on top of the paper board,

Da den er oven på det egentlige omslag,

which is the opposite, it forms this.

som er det modsatte, skaber det dette.

So even if you don't know anything about this book,

Så selv hvis man ikke ved noget om bogen,

you are forced to consider a single person

tvinges man til at overveje en enkelt person,

straddling two planes of existence.

der skræver over to eksistensplaner.

And the object itself invited exploration

Og objektet selv lagde op til udforskning,

interaction, consideration

interaktion, overvejelse

and touch.

og berøring.

This debuted at number two

Denne debuterede som nummer 2

on the New York Times Best Seller list.

på New York Times Bestseller liste.

This is unheard of,

Dette er uhørt,

both for us the publisher, and the author.

både for os forlaget, og forfatteren.

We're talking a 900-page book

Vi taler en 900-siders bog,

that is as weird as it is compelling,

der er så underlig, som den er fængslende,

and featuring a climactic scene

og indeholdende en klimaktisk scene,

in which a horde of tiny people

i hvilken en horde af små mennesker

emerge from the mouth of a sleeping girl

dukker frem fra munden af en sovende pige

and cause a German Shepherd to explode.

og får en schæferhund til at eksplodere.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Not exactly Jackie Collins.

Ikke ligefrem Jackie Collins.

Fourteen weeks on the Best Seller list,

Fjorten uger på Bestseller listen,

eight printings, and still going strong.

otte oplag og går stadig stærkt.

So even though we love publishing as an art,

Så selvom vi elsker udgivelse som kunst,

we very much know it's a business too,

ved vi rigtig meget, det også er en forretning,

and that if we do our jobs right and get a little lucky,

og hvis vi gør vores arbejde rigtigt og er lidt heldige,

that great art can be great business.

kan god kunst være god forretning.

So that's my story. To be continued.

Så det er min historie. Fortsættelse følger.

What does it look like?

Hvad ligner det?

Yes. It can, it does and it will,

Ja. Det kan, gør og vil,

but for this book designer,

men for denne bogdesigner,

page-turner,

side-vender,

dog-eared place-holder,

æseløre-pladsholder,

notes in the margins-taker,

noter i margen-tager,

ink-sniffer,

blæk-snuser,

the story looks like this.

ser historien sådan her ud.

Thank you.

Tak.

(Applause)

(Bifald)