SUNY Oswego - Alumni Association - October E-Newsletter

October 2010 • Vol 6 No 7

Kidd Offers Insight During Campus Visit

Acclaimed book cover designer-turned-author Chip Kidd enlightened a near-capacity crowd of students during his afternoon talk Sept. 15 in the Campus Center Auditorium.

Author, designer Chip Kidd

Kidd opened one of three appearances on campus by saying he was pleasantly “astonished” that his second novel, The Learners, was selected for this year’s Oswego Reading Initiative. The book was inspired in part by the notorious Milgram experiments of the early 1960s in which subjects were challenged by an authority figure to perform acts they found objectionable.

Part of the “Living Writers Series,” Kidd’s Q and A with primarily English students centered on his shift from cover design to writing.

“In cover design … I’m basically being forced to read really good writing all the time,” said Kidd, who has worked with bestselling authors Bret Easton Ellis, Cormac McCarthy and John Updike among numerous others.

The creator of such iconic book covers as Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton said he was drawn to the Milgram experiments because of their ingenious design. So he used it as a backdrop for both his novels – the first was The Cheese Monkeys – which are built around the adventures of an art school student.

His novels explore the relationship of content and form in many different ways, including the way the content is presented. Kidd revealed that both books were written in design format as opposed to using a word processor so he could see how the paragraphs would appear on the pages of the finished book.

He also imparted advice on handling critics to his audience of young writers.

“You’re writing because you believe in it. Because it’s important to you,” Kidd said. “You cannot depend on critics to validate what you’re doing.”

— Shane M. Liebler

PHOTO CAPTION:
Chip Kidd hams it up with an autograph seeker.

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Who doesn’t want to save the world? Michael Kite ’02 does that for a living through World Wildlife Fund.

As marketing specialist for one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, Kite and his team of three work to raise more than $5 million each year. The majority of that money comes from licensing partnerships and promotions with the likes of Barnes & Noble, Gap, Hewlett-Packard, Dial and Coinstar.

Retail partnerships help WWF spread its message to the general public and raise funds for its conservation work around the globe. For example, Bank of America contributes $100 for every special Visa account opened and Nabisco is supporting WWF’s “Year of the Tiger” initiative with special packaging and a $100,000 donation. The new CVS Green Bag Tag program rewards reusable bag-toting customers, and generates five cents for WWF for each tag sold.

All support WWF’s mission of protecting the future of nature, down to the finest details, Kite said.

“We like to see that the product is made from recycled material and is recyclable itself, and somehow ties into our mission,” Kite said. The Green Bag Tag, for instance, is made from a corn-based material and features a 100 percent recycled silicone lanyard.

As a broadcasting major at Oswego, Kite got involved with WRVO-FM and WNYO-FM.

“I think it gave me a lot more confidence in talking to people,” he said. It was an important part of his early career in broadcast sales and remains an important piece in the message he “sells” today.

“The best part of my job is seeing a product in the store with the WWF logo after months of working with a company to launch it,” said Kite, who joined the organization in 2006. “It’s rewarding to give people a fun, unique way to protect our planet.”

— Shane M. Liebler