New York Times columnist Steven Heller recently profiled three author/designer teams who’ve had the rare opportunity to work with each other for over a decade. Heller’s examples of “enduring chemistry” are Philip Roth and Milton Glaser (of “I [heart] New York” logo fame), Chuck Palahniuk and Rodrigo Corral, and Haruki Murakami and John Gall.

The designers recount their first meetings with each author (Glaser met Roth 35 years ago “ playing softball in Woodstock) and discuss their inspirations (Corral’s take on Snuff is quite juicy).

Although they’ve worked together for years, the authors and designers aren’t quite as buddy-buddy as you might think. In fact, they’re practically strangers “ Gall has only met Murakami once, and Corral, well…

To date, Corral has designed 10 Palahniuk books, but he’s had only one conversation with the author. “Chuck was ready to publish his first collection of short stories, and I thought I had a great idea that I could simply run by him on the phone. The conversation didn’t go well; tons of awkward silence followed by ‘Yeaaah, great, ahhh, let’s sit on this for a little while.'”