Much has been said lately about the cover designs of the Penguin Education series, largely designed by Derek Birdsall and his Omnific studio; what with the publication of his Notes on book design, Penguin by Design: A Cover Story by Phil Bains and a current exhibition at The Design Museum in London. Nevertheless, as I'm in Penguin-mode right now, having rummaged through my sadly loft-based collection recently, I feel moved to pay tribute to them myself.
For me, it started with Juniors, which I stumbled across in the bargain bin of a secondhand bookshop in Leicester. I've always liked typographic trickery, so the cover leaped out. So simple and clever, so seemingly effortless. Genius!
I went looking for others and over time found these: Poverty is perfect, with its small, pre-decimal sixpence, not only replacing the "O" but it's even "too little"; Personality, with its highlighted "i", the style of which I personally don't like but can't ignore that it just works; and, Psychology and Religion which, interestingly, is a forerunner to Birdsell's cover design of Common Worship for the Church of England.
Then there's: Ageing and its well burnt candle; the half coloured-in Comprehensive: Half Way There; and Family, with its cunning use of different brackets.
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Posted by: Term Papers | 13 November 2009 at 10:52 AM