Count the most famous penguins in the world, and this one is undoubtedly on the list:
On the shelves of bookstores, in the study of friends, you can always see penguin books with bad looks at a glance.
I believe that many old readers of the Ashin family have already collected our "Penguin Classics, Little Black Books" and "Little Rainbow", "Penguin Modern Classics" and other stunning penguin books at a glance!
When it comes to Penguin Books, we have to mention its classic three-paragraph cover design.
In 2009, the Royal Post office released a set of stamps with the theme "Ten Classic Designs That Influenced Britain", one of which Penguin's "three-paragraph" book cover. In people's minds, the brightly colored book cover printed with the little penguin is a British symbol that can be compared to a double-decker bus and a red telephone booth.
Since Sir Alan Lane created the Penguin Book in 1935, the little penguin has been active on a wide variety of book covers for 87 years. Looking back at the publishing history of Penguin Books, they have attracted readers from all over the world with countless classic designs.
At the beginning of the creation of these classic designs, what kind of words and painstaking thoughts between editors, authors and designers?
Recently, we published two books, "Penguin 75" and "Penguin from Design", with book lovers who "buy books like mountains" and get a glimpse of the exclusive behind-the-scenes of cover design work!
Little penguins can also be a blockbuster
The original idea for the creation of Penguin Books came from a wait at a train station.
At that time, Alan Lane, who had just visited Agatha Christie, was waiting at the train station and could not find cheap books to pass the time, so the idea was to reprint novels and non-fiction works in cheap and beautiful paperbacks.
At that time in Europe, the books on the market were still mainly hardcover books, although there were already paperback books, but there was no publisher that could balance the three aspects of cheap prices, convenient folios and high-quality content - which gave Penguin books the opportunity.
On July 30, 1935, Penguin Books published 10 books for the first time, using a convenient folio of 181mm x 111mm, a palm-sized small book, which was convenient for readers to read immediately.
The book cover design uses three horizontal grids, with the upper and lower two grids color-coded: orange for fiction, green for crime fiction, dark blue for biography, cherry red for travelogues and adventures, and red for drama.
These colors are matched with the white lattice in the middle, making the whole book cover design very eye-catching, simple, novel and full of modern atmosphere.
The penguin icon on the cover comes from London Zoo.
At that time, Edward Young, a designer who was only 21 years old, drew a sketch at the zoo and came back without forgetting to complain: "Oh my God, those birds stink so much!" ”
However, those readers who got the book all called "true fragrance": this batch of books with 20,000 copies printed for the first time was snapped up as soon as they were listed; penguins reached 3 million copies when they turned 1 year old; in just 10 years, in the reader's reputation, "penguin" became synonymous with "paperback books" (of course, this later became the "happiness trouble" of the publishing house owner).
Those love-hate feuds about the cover
The original version of the penguin logo, which was later improved again and again, eventually became what we know today.
And the cover of Penguin Books, naturally, will not only use a template to hit the world. Even the most classic three-paragraph book covers have produced changes such as adding illustrations, horizontal to vertical, and so on.
In the field of book cover design, it can be said that Penguin Books is also a leading existence.
For example, the following world-famous super bestseller, the author Gilbert himself said in an interview:
"At first, when people asked me why 'Food, Prayer, Love' became a phenomenal book, I would say honestly: 'Because of the cover.'"
Its classic cover spells out "eat" with pasta, "pray" with rosaries, and "love" with flowers, corresponding to the author's experience of searching for food in Italy, then learning "devotionals" in India, and finally enjoying the scenery of paradise on earth in Bali.
Of course, when readers are attracted to the cover, they probably can't think of the hardships behind shooting the cover. Its designers said:
"It ended up being one of the hardest covers I've ever done in my life. Pasta and prayer beads are hard to put around, but the results are not bad. And those petals are really a nightmare, each petal has to be laid out with tweezers, and seriously, is it really necessary to put it in a ligature font? ”
The worst thing is that the first shot was not good, and when I shot again, the petals were all gone, and I had to do it all over again.
The cover design of Penguin Books not only makes the books of newcomer authors stand out, but also revitalizes many classic works.
For example, the cover of the Penguin Classic Series (Fashion Edition), drawn by fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo, is simply "too much for the most fashion trends-chasing people to refuse"!
The cover of "The Red Letter" is expanded
On the cover of The Red Letter, the red-haired Hyster Brandy's chest is embroidered with the oversized red letter A symbol of "Adultery", and the embroidery thread is entangled in her.
The illustrator was very fond of Hyster's imagery as a tailor: "Women can weave their own stories, stitch their own destinies, and try to mend their lives." ”
Wuthering Heights cover expands
"Wuthering Heights" has a huge character network and a huge time span, but all the stories take place in this isolated "Wuthering Heights". In order to present the story itself realistically, the illustrators use winding landscapes to reflect the twists and turns of the story and the twisted people who live here.
There are also some covers, which are so beautiful that people will never forget!
For example, "The Piano Teacher's Lover", a novel about colonial Hong Kong in the midst of war. Hearing this description, I believe you can already think of many elements in your mind: piano keys, embracing couples, dragons representing the East and cheongsam beauties... However, these are precisely the things that the author explicitly asks not to see.
So the stressed designer finally finished this stunning cover in the middle of the night before the deadline:
There is also this "Brontë Three Sisters Anthology", the cover, book and back cover use the portrait of the three sisters, and the black tree branch silhouette conveys the gloomy but not depressed mood of the novel, which has a beautiful sense of antiquity and does not lack modernity.
Make the cover charming
"From fingertips to heart"
In an era when reading only provided hardcover books for the aristocratic class, Alan Lane led the "paperback book revolution" with the idea of "providing more paperback books for the public".
Today, Penguin, a classic publishing brand, has become almost synonymous with book design and publishing quality.
It defines what is standard and classic, what is art and beauty in the field of book art, and has influenced the aesthetic taste, thought, knowledge and character of The British and even the world.
The New Yorker cover artist Chris Weir once said:
"The cover also expands the book's connotations, even extending its influence to the reader's fingertips and hearts."
Today, when electronic screens are gradually replacing paper media, many readers insist on buying books, just to be able to feel the beauty of this cover design and book craftsmanship touched by their fingertips.
The book "Penguin from Design", starting from the birth of Penguin's first paperback book, selects 540 classic covers that are of great significance in the history of Penguin development, and shows the entire history of modern graphic design from the long cover volume of Penguin 70 years.
Penguin 75 selects 75 excellent cover works from Penguin Books, telling the stories and inspirations of authors, design directors, designers, editors and photographers behind the cover design.
With stunning designs and interpretations of classic works, this may be the reason why Penguin Books can always occupy a corner on the shelves of book lovers around the world.
As Phil Barnes, author of Penguins by Design, puts it:
"In [Penguin's] 70-year publishing history, design has been the focus...
The success or failure of a cover design is hard to quantify, but Penguins have always prided themselves on being the best designers, illustrators, and photographers they have hired, bringing them to the fore and fascinate readers with the covers they design. ”
Cover of Penguin Books
Much more than three color strips and a dancing penguin
Penguin 75, Penguin by Design
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2022.3.10
Editor: Sangsang | Review: Yoyo