MICHAEL IAN KAYE
INTERVIEW BY DOUG PERKUL | permalink | posted August 12, 2008

Michael Ian Kaye, though his name may not ring a bell, has been capturing readers’ imaginations for years with his celebrated book jackets. Whether it’s on a Malcolm Gladwell or David Sedaris, chances are one of his designs is sitting on your shelf right now. Kaye took a moment out of his busy schedule to sit down with Lit Mob and try to explain that magical thing he does.

What are you currently reading?
Snuff by Chuck Palahnuik, Dancer from the Dance: A Novel by Andrew Holleran, and On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee.

How did you get started designing book jackets?
I came to New York immediately after art school and was searching for a job. My brother noticed an ad in the Village Voice for a design assistant at Penguin Books—I responded immediately. After reviewing my body of student work, laden with messages of suburban angst, insecurities and passion (which seemed to be a winning combination), I was hired to work with the group that designs book interiors.

After working with the group for a year or two, I moved into the book jacket group and was lucky enough to be charged with designing Don DeLillo’s Mao II: A Novel. The book was a huge success, and the jacket was cited in several reviews. Thus began my career in design.

Aside from the infamous Fight Club design, what other jackets have you done?
Far too many to mention here, but to name a few: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon, and Leviathan by Paul Auster—to name a few.

Trying to find a design that works for a book with diverse themes and characters must be daunting. Can you describe the process?
The first step is always to read the manuscript, during which I flag all of the pages with interesting thoughts and doodle in the margins. Then I evaluate the thoughts based on whether they can truly represent the book in its entirety and speak to all of the marketing objectives without feeling trite or overdone. In creating the initial design, I try to imbue it with a bit of personal sensibility and wit, explore typographic language, and marry those to image-based ideas.

You mentioned that you have three or four jackets coming out in the fall, can you tell us a little bit about them?
Here they are:
The Silver Linings Playbook: A Novel by Matthew Quick
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood and Armistead Maupin
Man’s Search For Himself by Rollo May
The Courage to Create by Rollo May

Do you collaborate at all with the authors?
Well, for the ones who are dead, it’s pretty hard. But for the living authors, it varies widely… usually very little collaboration. However, some authors do have very specific ideas, and others trust me or at least want to see my take on the design first.

You are also the head of [NYC-based advertising agency] Mother’s new design group—any cool projects that we should know about?
We’ve been busy, to say the least, but here are some projects of note:

The identity, launch book and press collateral for Liz Claiborne, in collaboration with Isaac Mizrahi

The Athlete Gift Design for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, for the Johnson & Johnson Olympics program

The New York Times Book Review Cover, September 16, 2007

The School of Visual Arts, Senior Library Book 2007