O.C.'s willing to bet that there's not a single reader that hasn't flipped over the cover of one of Chip Kidd's seriously killer book jackets -- even if you're illiterate and literally can't understand a single one of these words you're reading right now.
Chip Kidd, the American book jacket designer, gave ravenous readers (and graphic design junkies) the sexiest, edgiest, coolest and most revolutionary examples of how radical graphic design works when given the Kidd treatment -- straight from his office at Alfred A. Knopf where he sits as Evil Cheese Monkey Overlord (actually, he's the Associate Art Director).
The ageless graphic designer (and novelist) has worked with everyone, and his clout is thick and greasy like an un-brushed pony mane: Don DeLillo, Elmore Leonard, J.D. McClatchy (sweeeet!), Alex Ross (amen!), Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, etc. infinity. His 20+ years of design work at Knopf is cataloged in his book, Work: 1986-2006, and as O.C. was revisiting it the other day, she remembered a Maria Callas treatment of "The Voice, The Story", designed by Kidd in 1997 for Highbridge Audio.
Even better is his description, full of Courtney Love love:
"Maria Callas burned out harder and faster than any punk rocker could ever dream of, with enough horribly gorgeous fire to scorch Courtney Love to a crisp. This audio documentary of her life plays like a totally engrossing operatic novel and will have you weeping copiously by the fourth tape."
Wait -- what's a "tape"?!