Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005
Who says a book with a section about the fonts used on the cover of Penguin books can't be interesting? Despite a fairly unprepossessing title, Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005
This book is a must for design nuts, with its exploration of the cover's evolution from the modernist 30s through the psychedelic 60s to the bold commercialism of the Millennium. But more than just a treasure trove of design inspiration, the book also offers an unusually angled insight into the social history of the twentieth century.
We learn how Penguin's stringently egalitarian ethos and commitment to providing a cheap means of owning literature was carried on with the introduction of adverts on the back covers in order to subsidise the 6d price; how Pelican books were introduced to provide easy access to highbrow
subject matter for the 'interested layman'; and how the 'make do and mend' of wartime Britain was exemplified in a series of handbooks and current affairs titles.
Although the text is absorbing and at times almost moving, it's the images of the various paperbacks some of them reassuringly familiar, some never seen even by the most committed second-hand bookshop browser that are truly covetable. A quick flick of the pages instills an instant desire to be at home, with a cup of tea, a cosy duvet, and a huge pile of new old books. Although with covers like these, who needs content?
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