Penguin Books cover design : the book or the brand ?

59
Schedae
2ToRWDNKECVKQPP‚
^
(CUEKEWNGP‚
2GPIWKP$QQMUEQXGTFGUKIP
VJGDQQMQTVJGDTCPF!
2JKN$CKPGU
Phil Baines is a freelance designer living and working in London. The author of three books and
numerous articles in the design press, he is also Professor of Typography at Central Saint Martins
College of Art and Design, London.
Penguin Books fut la première maison d’édition à produire en masse des livres bon marché en
Angleterre ; son histoire coïncide avec le développement du design graphique comme profession distincte de l’imprimerie et de la publicité. Commençant par rééditer son fonds de catalogue
sous de nouvelles couvertures aux bandes horizontales et colorées, elle s’est progressivement
affirmée comme un éditeur novateur, couvrant la plupart des champs du savoir. Alors que les premières couvertures s’efforçaient d’établir une marque bien distincte, la diversité éditoriale progressivement mise en place avait besoin d’une plus grande variété graphique. Cette conférence
abordera l’histoire du design des couvertures de Penguin Books et son évolution concernant la
promotion du livre en regard de la marque.
With a tiny number of notable exceptions – Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange,
for example, or John Berger’s Ways of Seeing – very few paperback book covers have the
same relationship with their contents as pop record sleeves have with theirs. This is mainly
because the first mass-market paperbacks were reprints of existing titles licensed from hardback publishers, and any visual association with those books’ previous existence was unwanted. As paperbacks evolved, so did ideas of how they should appear and how they should
reach their intended market.
Penguin books, first published in 1935, were the first mass-market paperbacks in Britain.
The vision of Allen, John and Richard Lane, Penguin began life as an imprint of The Bodley
Head, republishing existing works of fiction and non-fiction. Within a year it was a separate
company, and within another few years it was commissioning new writing, launching new
series and re-defining the boundaries of publishing. The appearance of the classic Penguin cover design has so ingrained itself in the nation’s consciousness that today, seventy
years later, everybody thinks they know what a Penguin looks like. A closer look however,
Phil Baines
« Penguin Books cover design: the book or the brand? »
Schedae, 2007, prépublication n° 66, (fascicule n° 3, p. 59 - 62).
60
reveals that the story of Penguin cover design is far more interesting and complicated than
first impressions might suggest.
The story of the company’s cover designs parallels the emergence of graphic design as
a profession. This discipline, combining strategic thinking, a strong visual sense, organizational ability and the craft skills to implement them all, only developed slowly. Art schools
had existed in Britain since 1858, and members of the Arts & Crafts Movement of the mid
to late nineteenth century, such as William Morris and W. R. Lethaby, instigated a serious
re-appraisal of the role of the artist in society generally. But in the 1920s and 1930s, art for
industry usually meant ‘illustration’ for books or ‘commercial art’ – poster design – for companies such as the Underground Group or Shell Petroleum, who recognized the value of
artists in creating memorable publicity material. Aspects of typographic design and arrangement were studied only as part of an apprenticeship, the length and content of which
was controlled by the printing industry.
Early Penguin cover design was rooted in the traditions of the print trade. But as the
rebuilding of the economy after the Second World War brought about new working practices there was a merging of disciplines and changing expectations, and Penguin designs
changed to reflect these developments. There started to be a separation of page design
from cover design, an increasing use of commissioned designers, photographers and illustrators, and an embracing of new printing and typesetting techniques.
The developments and changes seen in Penguin covers also reflect the increasingly
sophisticated attitudes of publishers and readers towards design questions. The dilemma
from any publisher’s point of view is whether to use a cover to promote themselves or the
individual title. Part of the fascination of studying book covers is in seeing these tensions
played out in practice. For Penguin, at first glance it would seem that in the 1930s the
publisher’s identity was the most important aspect of the design ; today it would be easy
to suggest that on many titles the publisher is invisible. While there are elements of truth in
this – and reasons why it should be so – it fails to appreciate how many different titles and
series there were in the early years (and how diverse they could be) and ignores the strong
promotion of key series through consistent styling today.
This presentation – part history, part celebration, and part critique – explores the developments outlined above. It aims instead to outline the development of the brand and the
introduction of new series and imprints, to show the main changes in design, and to suggest
that Penguin covers are about far more than three coloured stripes and a dancing bird.
Schedae, 2007, prépublication n° 66, (fascicule n° 3, p. 59 - 62).
http://www.unicaen.fr/services/puc/preprints/preprint0662007.pdf
61
Couvertures
pour Penguin Books
Schedae, 2007, prépublication n° 66, (fascicule n° 3, p. 59 - 62).
http://www.unicaen.fr/services/puc/preprints/preprint0662007.pdf