There's something about that Jan Tschichold design (from 1948, no less) which is completely right and utterly timeless.
Penguin was fairly faithful to it for many years, although gradually it and its sister imprint Pelican (Pelican was the sign of hard-core non-fiction, back in the days when people read such stuff for self-improvement purposes) ... Pelican introduced a new grid and a startling new typographic approach -- I particularly love the simplicity and effectiveness of this:
As part of its 75th birthday celebrations last year, Penguin was celebrating the main different designs of covers it has worn:
None of them, for me, are quite up to the original...
But Penguin are a democratic sort of (evil multinational) company, so they offer you the chance to design your own covers:
Feel free to use any or all of the grids reproduced here:
I think you're going to be hard-pressed to beat Maestro Tschichold, though.
Even if you start with the Pelican imprint, which may be easier, design-wise.
I'm not sure I'd bother though.
I mean, how many of us can beat genius?
2 comments:
Oh, you're so right. I have your book on Penguin covers in the downstairs loo and have a quick flick through whenever I'm meant to be doing the laundry. Gorgeous covers, which immediately transport me back to happy days in second hand bookshops when books cost 10p for treasures. Genius indeed.
I just re-read what I wrote above and realised I have become something very distant from what I used to be...
Reminds me of Victoria Wood's sage words about how you know when middle age has set in -- it's when you walk past a shop window featuring a display of Dr Scholl's, and you find yourself thinking "oooh, those look comfy!"...
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