I’ve always found the conservative, “pin-striped suit” covers of the 1950s – the so-called vertical grid – a bit solemn,…
Some origins of the paperback
Penguin’s predecessors Before the so-called paperback revolution the most successful publisher of English language paperbacks was Tauchnitz Editions. Based in…
The Penguin Classics
Despite its fame as a literary classic, Homer’s Odyssey, the great epic poem about Odysseus and his return from the…
Derek Birdsall’s Education
Penguin regular Derek Birdsall was given the immense task in 1972 of art directing new covers for an entire category,…
Mystery profiles
Margery Allingham was a popular writer of detective fiction in the mid-century decades. She was one of the four “Queens…
Snow White Covers
Starting in the late 1960s, Penguin released twelve C.P. Snow novels in a new edition, with cover art by David…
Retro Deco for Evelyn Waugh
Penguin’s illustrative book covers From 1968, the Penguin art director for general books was David Pelham, an accomplished illustrator. He…
Shakespeare, Gentleman
Shakespeare covers In 1967 the English illustrator David Gentleman was commissioned by Penguin to produce the cover art for a…
David Pelham’s airbrushed sci-fi
Airbrush art for science fiction classics Penguin art director David Pelham loved JG Ballard’s novels for their “heartless depiction of…
The very modern Modern Stories
Simple ingredients create a modernist effect Penguin Modern Stories was a quarterly series published from 1969 to 1972 presenting short…
A classic design for the Classics
How the Penguin Classics grid was made Penguin Classics began in 1946 as a result of the massive and unexpected…
Adventures in Retro Design
In 2007-8 Penguin released a series of classic adventure novels from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Released as Red Classics…
70 years, 70 books, 70 artists, 70 quid.
Pocket Penguins – a 70th year celebration At every major anniversary of Penguin’s founding in 1935 the company has celebrated…
John Curtis was a bridge
How cover design was freed from monotonous typography This handsome cover, designed by John Curtis, gets a lot of impact…
English Journeys
Historic journeys in England and Englishness English Journeys is a series of twenty elegantly designed paperbacks that celebrate the English…
Poetic covers for modern poets
Graphic use of photographs brought style to book covers Penguin Modern Poets is a series of 27 poetry books published…
The Australian Sun rises
How Australia’s Sun Books started in the 1960s Sun Books was a new Australian paperback enterprise that was launched in…
Digital Shakespeare
Shakespeare gets a digital makeover One of the most unusual cover series of recent years is the set of forty…
Patterns of African History
How Penguin designed the African Library In the 1950s and 60s, oppression by colonial administrations and movements toward independence made…
The radical Sixties Specials
Dramatic covers for a radical decade. In the early 1960s a series of political crises filled the front pages: apartheid…
Penguin’s wartime Specials
Forceful covers in a time of war. In late 1937 Penguin launched a new imprint to help the public make…
The First Years of Pan
The vivid covers of Penguin’s biggest competitor What was Penguin’s main competition in the British paperback market during the so-called…
Romek Marber – Penguin illustrator
Romek Marber’s collage and experimental photography In 1961, Romek Marber was chosen as the designer of a new cover grid…
How the Marber grid was made
The construction of the Marber grid The Marber grid – this is so wonderful I don’t even know how to…
Erwin Fabian, Penguin Illustrator
Artist’s long life included illustrating Penguin covers In January this year the Melbourne artist Erwin Fabian died at the great…
Günter Grass, author and artist
During the 1970s Penguin published five books by the esteemed German author Günter Grass. These books were produced during the…
Joanna and the Modern Classics
“In those days, any self-respecting teenage bookworm went to school with a Penguin Modern Classic tucked in a blazer pocket”…
Milton Glaser has died
Milton Glaser, influential star of design and illustration and co-founder of New York’s famous Push Pin Studios in 1954, has…
R.I.P Romek Marber
On March 30, Romek Marber died at the great age of 94. He had a long and admired career in…
1984 since 1954: Orwell covers evolve
///// The changing cover design of George Orwell’s 1984 How better to explain the difference between American and British paperback…
Three lettered covers
Illustrative lettering instead of images The art of illustration flourished at Penguin during the 1960s and 70s under a series…
Penguin’s Grunge Essentials
Penguin’s design renaissance In 1998, Penguin awoke from decades of slumber to regain its reputation for good cover design. One…
Louisa Hare’s Shakespeare covers
The Penguin Shakespeare covers of the mid-1990s had an appealing antique quality. They were based on the First Folio of…
Petra Börner’s Selected Poems
Penguin’s Selected Poems is a short series from 2006 on modern poets. The cover images feature the work of Petra Börner,…
Penguin Plays with grids
// // Modular design refreshes an old brand In 1963, the dowdy layout for the Penguin Plays series, shown on…
Pelham before Penguin
David Pelham designs for Studio International The David Pelham era was the golden age of Penguin cover design. As art…
Facetti the printmaker
Design is art for the masses Germano Facetti was the art director who helped turn around Penguin’s fortunes in the…
Penguin’s wartime advertisements
During World War II, it was a challenge for businesses not directly involved in the war to stay afloat.…
The Art of Plain Speaking
……… Covers keep it simple For almost thirty years, Penguin cover designs were typographic,…
Hard Edge Penguins
Covers by Germano Facetti, 1972 and Martin Bassett, 1973 In the 1960s and 70s, Pelican books, Penguin’s non-fiction arm,…
PENGUIN SERIES DESIGN 