Penguin Classics books have come a long way. The books were originally extremely cheap and its founder, Allen Lane, was determined to increase their worth by designing audience-grabbing covers. The designers of Penguin Classics were lucky, the ‘trend’ of 1940s England was simplicity and plain lettering, which was really all they could afford. Lane originally went to the zoo and hand-sketched the Penguin logo, a very cost-effective method of design.
Jan Tschichold was one of the greatest Penguin Classics designers who invented the classic Penguin cover in 1946. Hired by Lane as a typography designer, he personally designed over 500 Penguin covers.
By the early 1960s, the old penguin design had become tired and Germano Facetti was hired to innovate. He took advantage of the rising technologies in print, producing much more sophisticated covers and changing the 'crime' genre's typical green cover to black.
After a dip in popularity in the 80s and 90s, art director, Jim Stoddart, and a junior designer, David Pearson, brought sales shooting up again with their design for Great Ideas.
"I have never been able to understand why cheap books should not also be well designed, for good design is no more expensive than bad."
“Whenever the printers complained, he'd exaggerate his German accent and pretend not to understand them.”
“-orange for fiction, green for crime and blue for biography- “
Penguin has a knack for bringing old, classic books into a new light with freshly-designed covers as well as a lucky streak as they ride along with the market. They take advantage of the trends and are constantly innovating and progressing to impress and grab readers.
What kind of cover art does penguin implement now? I suppose I am confused, you talked about the color change but not the art type (Modern, classical, etc.) It would have been helpful to see some examples of newer covers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Laurel. I know that these versions of the books have been around for a while considering my mom used to read these at a young age, but i'm a little confused on what it is that makes these different from the originals. Is it just the front cover that is different?
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