Phil Baines (1958–2024)

A nice overview about publisher Penguin 1935-2005ish. It's not just book cover design but the entire book production business, from author acquisition to font design, and book marketing to commissioning images. It seems every major employee of Penguin tried to put their own mark on the brand, either by redesigning a large set of books, or by starting a new series, or taking a specific approach to typography. I loved the overview page in the back with all the different versions of the Penguin, Pelican and Puffin logos.… (lisätietoja)

I really enjoyed this look through the design of the Penguin Covers (and love the use of book spines to create a typical penguin cover!) This only falls down with the use of orange text for footnotes (sidenotes really) and personality/place photographs, I found them fairly difficult to read against the white, normally this wouldn't lose a book a full point, but this is a book criticising typography and style.

It's an interesting wander through the different cover art and uses of the logo. Now I want to find a copy of the Penguin Knitting book by James Norbury, I love the penguin logo on that book as much as I like the look of the book, I reckon there's entertainment potential there.

A book for book, printing and typography geeks.… (lisätietoja)

This is a fantastic book for anyone who loves children's books, but also for those interested in style and design throughout the 20th century. It charts the evolution of Puffin's image from 1940 to the present, and spares no expense on the quality and number of images reproduced. However, it is not really a gallery of all your favourite cover art - rather, the book is a survey of cover styles, with a generous selection of examples from each period. Phil Baines provides a sometimes critical commentary on the innovations made, and how well he believes they worked in terms of graphic design. The contents of the books illustrated are not discussed, beyond identifying whether they are fiction or not.

It was fascinating to me to see the beautiful covers from the very first Puffins - way before my time, and which I have never seen even second hand. As the designs became more familiar to me from my own library, there were plenty that brought back memories, and some that made me cringe! The teen imprints, Peacock Books and Puffin Plus, are also discussed, as are plenty of Picture Puffins.

This would make a great gift for a book lover or for someone interested in graphic design history. This was published to celebrate Puffin's 70th birthday, but it is we who have received a lovely gift!… (lisätietoja)