Simple ingredients create a modernist effect Penguin Modern Stories was a quarterly series published from 1969 to 1972 presenting short … More
Author: gregneville1
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 … More
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 … More
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 … More
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 … More
English Journeys
Historic journeys in England and Englishness English Journeys is a series of twenty elegantly designed paperbacks that celebrate the English … More
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 … More
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 … More
Digital Shakespeare
Shakespeare gets a digital makeover One of the most unusual cover series of recent years is the set of forty … More
Patterns of African History
How Penguin designed the African Library In the 1950s and 60s, oppression by colonial administrations and movements toward independence made … More
The radical Sixties Specials
Dramatic covers for a radical decade. In the early 1960s a series of political crises filled the front pages: apartheid … More
Penguin’s wartime Specials
Forceful covers in a time of war. In late 1937 Penguin launched a new imprint to help the public make … More
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 … More
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 … More
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 … More
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 … More
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 … More
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” … More
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 … More
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 … More
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 … More
Three lettered covers
Illustrative lettering instead of images The art of illustration flourished at Penguin during the 1960s and 70s under a series … More
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 … More
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 … More
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, … More
Penguin Plays with grids
// // Modular design refreshes an old brand In 1963, the dowdy layout for the Penguin Plays series, shown on … More
Pelham before Penguin
David Pelham designs for Studio International The David Pelham era was the golden age of Penguin cover design. As art … More
Facetti the printmaker
Design is art for the masses Germano Facetti was the art director who helped turn around Penguin’s fortunes in the … More
Penguin’s wartime advertisements
During World War II, it was a challenge for businesses not directly involved in the war to stay afloat. … More
The Art of Plain Speaking
……… Covers keep it simple For almost thirty years, Penguin cover designs were typographic, … More
Hard Edge Penguins
Covers by Germano Facetti, 1972 and Martin Bassett, 1973 In the 1960s and 70s, Pelican books, Penguin’s non-fiction arm, … More
Op Art Penguins
..///. Following the fusty conservatism of Pelican cover design in the 1950s, the Facetti and Pelham eras of art direction … More
Art and the Modern Classics
In the 1960s, Penguin art director Germano Facetti revised the cover design for Penguin Modern Classics. He wanted a bold, … More
Birdsall’s typographic covers
/// “Now here’s an anecdote,” Derek Birdsall begins his story. It’s about his designs for Penguin’s Graham Greene covers in … More
Tony Meeuwissen’s elegant covers
Playful, decorative covers by a master illustrator Tony Meeuwissen has been one of England’s foremost illustrators since the 1960s. He … More
Spain and McBain
Modernist collages for Penguin Crime Ed McBain wrote over fifty police-procedural novels set in New York’s fictional 87th precinct. They … More
Posters on the back covers
One of the pleasures of collecting Penguin from the 1960s is discovering beautiful back covers. Normally the back was just … More
Pentagram’s photographic covers
Michael Innes was not an idle man. He was the pseudonym of J.I.M. Stewart, an Oxford professor and author who … More
The Case of the Coppola Covers
Original artworks by commercial illustrators, those sent to the publisher for repro and printing, are extremely rare. They were not … More
Charles Raymond covers
Charles Raymond made these cover illustrations in 1962-65, the period of the Marber grid in Penguin fiction. Raymond was a … More
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