Last week, the husband and I went to listen to a talk on book cover design. Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd and Dave Eggers each spoke about their work, their process, and shared their experiences about some of their favorite projects.

Many of the books I’d read when I was little had covers designed by Milton Glaser, so it was like a glitch in the time-space continuum to see him in person with his Robert-Duvall-ish aura, talking about many of those old covers (including the Signet Classic covers pictured below). 

Chip Kidd, the designer behind many of the Knopf books we see on the shelves these days (three of which are shown below), had us laughing hysterically with his outrageous comments and flamboyant style.

And Dave Eggers, the founder of McSweeney’s, walked us through how he worked with an Icelandic printer to make the much-collected, limited-edition McSweeney’s Quarterly Concerns and other screenprinted books.

After the presentations, there was a short Q&A, and that’s when the light-hearted atmostphere of the evening took an unexpected turn. The fourth question was posed:

“Why do you — all three of you — suppose there are so few female graphic designers — or at least so few female ’superstar’ graphic designers? Is there a glass ceiling in graphic design?”

Uncomfortable silence was followed by each presenter trying to think of some way to explain this. Glaser attributed the lack of female celebrity designers to evolution, citing marriage, child-rearing, and home-making as taking away from the crucial years that their male counterparts are being the most productive and visible. You could hear a murmur of disapproval in the audience. Glaser’s thinking is archaic, to say the least, but he is really old, so we’ll excuse that. Kidd said that most of his counterparts are extremely talented female designers, but shrugged when he couldn’t figure out why it was his, and not their, name that is constantly brought up in the book design world. Eggers piped in at the last minute, saying that he and his wife split everything 50-50 so in his home, at least, there wasn’t such a distinction. It was clearly time to move onto the next question.

Is there really a glass ceiling in the field of book cover design? Or is it just that the men in the book design field are more vocal and therefore find their way into the spotlight? And does this high visibility even matter, when “superstar” status should be based on what is designed, and not how readily one speaks in public and gives entertaining powerpoint presentations?

Lots to muse over. I’d never even thought of the issue before because I can run off a long list of incredibly talented and well-known female authors and illustrators (many of whom draw book covers). The husband works in the design field and shares his perspective of it on A One and A Two.

If you want to read more about this supposed glass ceiling in book design controversy, take a look at what Michael Bierut of Pentagram (who was the moderator at the panel that evening) wrote on Design Observer, and the response (posted in the comments section of that article) by Paula Scher, a prominent female designer.

December 13th, 2006