26/01/12 – Select illustrations from Le Corbusier’s The modulor: a harmonious measure to the human scale universally applicable to architecture and mechanics published by Faber and Faber (1954). Book design and typography based on the proportions of the modulor.

Sources and more information
Images on Flickr
More Le Corbusier posts

15/12/10 – Two early examples of titles from the Penguin Poets series: (left) John Overton’s [?] original design of 1946 and (right) Jan Tschichold’s reformed design of 1951.

The Penguin Poets series first appeared in 1941 with only three titles published before Jan Tschichold’s arrival in 1947. I believe the original design was by John Overton.

Tschichold’s redesign picked up on features common to his other designs. Like the Shakespeare series, he added a decorative border and, as in his Penguin Scores design, he employed Garamond Italic for the titles.

The design was revised 1954 by his successor, Hans Schmoller.

Schmoller pushed the design still closer to that of the Penguin Scores by introducing patterned backgrounds, even re-purposing some of the very same designs.

Sources and related information
For more on the design and history of Penguin Books, see Penguin by design: A cover story 1935-2005 and Seven hundred penguins in the bibliography.

Penguin covers on Flickr//

23/11/10 – A selection of examples from the Penguin Scores series designed by Jan Tschichold in 1949. The series used a horizontal version of Penguin’s larger B size with typography set in Garamond and background patterns by Stephen Russ, Elizabeth Friedlander, Barbara Lambourne, and many others.

Sources and related information
For more on the design and history of Penguin Books, see Penguin by design: A cover story 1935-2005 and Seven hundred penguins in the bibliography.

Information about the work of Stephen Russ//

Penguin covers on Flickr//

11/10/10 – Two examples of early Pelican titles: (left) Edward Young’s original horizontal grid design of 1937 and (right) Jan Tschichold’s reformed design of 1949.

Edward Young’s design for the Pelican imprint follows, largely, the same design he created for Penguin fiction titles. It features a horizontal tripartite grid (in Pelican’s characteristic light blue), quartic with imprint’s name (this time in Gill Sans), and a rather large and centrally-placed logo at its base.

Jan Tschichold’s reform of Young’s design does away with the horizontal grid and introduces a frame containing the imprint’s name, optically letterspaced capitals, a central panel for blurb or image, subtle redrawing of the pelican logo and a consistent use of space.

Tschichold’s design remained in use until 1960.

Sources and related information
For more on the design and history of Penguin Books, see Penguin by design: A cover story 1935-2005 and Seven hundred penguins in the bibliography.

Penguin covers on Flickr//

An excellent collection of Pelican covers from Things Magazine: The Pelican project//

27/09/10 – The Penguin Shakespeare series: Edward Young’s [?] original design (1938) and Jan Tschichold’s revision (1949).

For his redesign, Jan Tschichold did away with the horizontal banding characteristic of early Penguin designs and introduced a black frame. In the centre, he placed a portrait of Shakespeare by renowned English wood engraver Reynolds Stone which was balanced above and below by the title and editor’s name set in Bembo in red. Initially, for the covers he employed a heavy uncoated paper (see image below), but, with the move to offset-litho from letterpress, standard smooth art board eventually replaced the uncoated board.

Tschichold’s design remained in use until 1967.

Sources and related information
For more on the design and history of Penguin Books, see Penguin by design: A cover story 1935-2005 and Seven hundred penguins in the bibliography.

Penguin covers on Flickr//

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