When Penguin was founded in 1935 with the radical concept of producing inexpensive paperback editions of high quality books, it adopted an equally progressive approach to typography and cover design. Under Jan Tschichold in the 1940s and Germano Facetti in the 1960s, Penguin became an exemplar of book design. 1934, the publisher Allen Lane scoured Exeter Lane Station for something to read. All he could find were reprints of 19th century novels. Lane decided to found a publishing house to produce good quality paperbacks sold at sixpence each - the same price as a packet of cigarettes."
"Tschichold moved to the centre stage of graphic design as a major champion of the modern typographic style during its infancy. His later work moved on from the exclusive work of asymmetrical design and sans serif typefaces, to a more classical approach. This caught the eye of Penguin Founder Allen Lane during the late 1940s, leading to Tschichold holding the creative reins of the infamous publishing house. During his brief stint as the head of typography and production, a new era of strict standards and great beauty were introduced. Tschichold's main goal was the implementation of a consistent look and feel across all Penguin books, no matter the print foundry. Prior to this, different printers would mildly aim to have books they print look akin to the Penguin family.
Tschichold's Penguin
Up to this point the Penguin covers used a mix of Gill Sans in two weights for all the text, except for the appearance of Bodoni Ultra Bold, only employed for the curved emblem of the top band in which Penguin Books sat proudly.
Above: Typical Penguin books before the work of Tschichold. The text is poorly kerned and an argumentative hierarchy.
Tschichold decided to simplify the design through the exclusive use of Gill Sans and also gave more attention and care to the tracking and kerning of all the text. Across the board, the spacing and size of type were refined, with the most beautiful being the generous tracking bestowed upon the heavy capitals of the book titles. Also worth of note is the subtle horizontal rule that was introduced, which helps break apart the elements used on each cover. This sometimes divides the title from the author, other times allowing a brief description of the text to be used without feeling as if it were just tucked in as needed. The changes made weren't huge. Tschichold knew better than to scrap the well known design altogether, seeing that all that was needed was more care and attention to detail.
Above: Visual variations showing the development of Tschichold's influence on Penguin book covers. Left- before, right - after.
When reducing the elements to blocks, the balance and symmetry that lead to the beauty of the new design can be easily viewed and planned. When the outlines of the designs can be seen before and after there is a clear difference in the subtle but effective adaptions of layout.
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