We're still trying to catch up from the shock of the old; New York City is no Miami. Not really even close. Not really even appealing in the stark light of cold contrast. So we apologize if we're a little behind on the current bloggery. But we are compelled to point you in the direction of Metropolis' Chip Kidd-a-thon (are they copying us??), which gets into Book One and why it, for the nth time, doesn't suck. Mostly we're intrigued by the explicit mix of the publishing industry and the elusiveness of design.

These glimpses of the book design process--of the back and forth between designer, author, editor, and publisher--are something that the exhibition's curator, Mike Essl, hoped to emphasize. "I would like people to see that graphic design isn't easy," Essl says. "That it is a process of making and remaking and talking to the author and showing sketches--you know, that it's not just picking fonts from Microsoft Word." Kidd himself confirms the complexity of the process. When asked how long it takes him to design a cover, Kidd replies: "Anywhere from ten minutes to six months. It's very, very hard to articulate."

"Sometimes it goes really quickly, sometimes it drags on and on."

Whoa. Seems just like he's talking about life.