Customer Reviews

Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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I picked this up because of the book's physical beauty, but I've just read it in one sitting, couldn't put it down--a fascinating window into 20th-century British cultural history as well as book design.

What a loving tribute to Allen Lane, the visionary who founded Penguin Books in 1935. Few publishers have consistently put their best `face' forward year after year over thousands of titles and I find it surprising that this Penguin cover history hasn't been written before 2005.

Admittedly most of their covers until the Fifties, though distinctive in the three-tier horizontal design, were not that creative but things slowly changed no doubt because of market pressure from other paperback publishers. I thought Penguin covers really took of in 1962 with the use of Romek Marber's simple cover grid. Pages 104-5 in the book show eighteen brilliant covers using simple graphics with black, green and red inks. The grid cover style ran into the seventies with the non-fiction Pelicans and nicely still using everybody's favorite type: Helvetica.

Author Phil Baines has done a lot of research for the book though it is basically visual with excellent short text pieces for the various title genres. A nice touch is spread of forty-eight Penguin logos from 1935 to 2005 at the back of the book and it is this kind of editorial thoughtfulness that makes the book so interesting.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

Penquin books have been a great joy ever since I discovered them in college many years ago. This fine collection is a trip down memory lane with beautiful designs and intriguing hints of the pleasures inside.

It's wonderful to see that so many of the books are still in print. An excellent sampling of the covers, including the ability to blow them up for closer inspection, appears on the Penquin Books website.

Also, my thanks to Robin Benson for his illustrations here on Amazon; they sold me on buying the book. Well done!

Robert C. Ross 2009

A light but enlightening journey through the evolution of cover designs, as impacted by world events, technology and taste. Particularly interesting for those in the industry.

Phil Baines's extraordinarily beautiful study of Penguin paperbacks (both their design and their publishing history) not only fills a gap in telling the full story of one of the most striking visual artifacts of the twentieth century. On gorgeous paper the book reproduces the many different designs for the Penguin paperbacks from the mid30s onward, showing small experiments launched by the company that sometimes took hold (such as their Pelican series) and sometimes did not (such as the beautiful Abram Games full-color covers of the late 50s). The stories of the cover designs make you astonished at a company that has courageously encouraged so much innovation consistently over the decades.

I am a graphic designer, but I recommend this book to anyone who is curious when looks at books at the library and ask him/her self - who made this cover is great or is horrible or what a great idea! Excellent compillation.

As a book lover as well as an art lover, I wanted this beautiful book as soon as I saw it. So I bought it and then realized it was a perfect birthday gift for a friend who is a graphic artist and an admirer of classic Penguin book design. He loved it, of course. So then I had to order another one for myself. Definitely a keeper.

Among the first books I ever stole (being poor) were Penguins, because they were the most interesting, the best designed, and -- oh I don't know -- the most "bookish"? I wanted to be (would become) a writer. I was stupid-young, self-absorbed, pliably amoral -- and broke.

Now here's the company's entire story told through covers. Pictorial. Visceral. Brilliant. More love per exhibit than a non-bibliophile can imagine.

Now that I have an income I buy hundreds of book I don't especially need in flagrant pay-back mode. Thank you, Penguin. My first love.

Hi from Barcelona.
First of all, sorry for my really bad english.
I really recomend the purchase in Amazon.
No problem whit anything, all is perfect.
I think that the book of Phil Baines (Penguin by Design) is one of the obligated purchases for any graphic designer. Perfect design and perfect information.
Thanks Phil!!!

Marc