Phil Baines Pelican book covers 1957–62 [Bold = pictures available and captions] [material in square brackets is note to you and shouldn’t appear in your design]
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BY PHIL BAINES Phil Baines is a freelance designer, writer, and Professor of Typography at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. He is author of Penguin By Design (2005) and Puffin By Design (2010). Note: all dates given in captions relate to the reprint date of the example scanned or photographed which is not necessarily the same as that cover design’s first appearance.
PELICAN BOOK COVERS 1957–62
BEFORE & AFTER THE MARBER GRID Like many designers looking at Penguin Books, I was very quickly attracted to the Crime covers commissioned by the new Cover Art Director Germano Facetti (1928–2006) from Romek Marber in 1961. Using what became known as the Marber grid, these featured crisp and consistent typography in a clearly defined area which helped retain the identity of the publisher, with an area for illustration below.
a match for the Crime series. Having continued to collect, and having spent more time in Penguin’s library at Rugby studying titles published or re-covered between 1957 and 1963, I’ve realised that the fresh illustrations are not so fresh after all. While Germano Facetti’s achievement at Penguin is rightly fêted*, its success has tended to give a false view of Penguin’s cover design policy.
Of the 170 titles which used the grid, around 70 featured illustrations by Marber himself. Facetti quickly saw the advantages of this grid over previous series designs, and extended its use to both the fiction and Pelican titles.
There can seem to be two distinct periods: the early one dominated by the now iconic three horizontal stripes design and the revised classicism of Jan Tschichold & Hans Schmoller; and the later period from Facetti onwards driven more overtly by graphic design and more recently marketing. A close look at the company’s cover designs produced between say 1957 and 1962 however, makes it clear that the seeds of modernity had been emerging for some time, and that Facetti’s achievement
When working on Penguin By Design: a Cover Story 1935–2005 (Allen Lane 2005) I formed the view that the Marber grid Pelicans, with their fresh, often diagramatic, punchy illustrations (and ignoring history titles) were more than 12 | PENGUIN COLLECTOR
was primarily in providing a consistent and unifying vision across the whole of the company’s output. A consistent ‘Modernist’ typographic style was a key element of the cover designs and series designs art directed by him, but forward-looking illustrative work had been commissioned by the company for quite some time, and there is far more continuity between the two periods than is often supposed.
* Phil Baines (GF obituary) The Independent, 15 April 2006; Herbert Spencer, Typographica (new series) 5, 1962; Richard Hollis, Eye 29, 1998; Rick Poynor, Eye 53, 2004 and (GF obituary) The Guardian, 12 April 2006.
Facts from Figures Design by Larry Carter, 1960 & 1970
Animals without Backbones Design by Colin Forbes, 1960 & 1964
The Ancient World Design by Bruce Robertson, 1961 & 1968
A History of Modern France Vol.1 Design by Colin Forbes, 1962 & 1963
The Ancient Civilisations of Peru Photo by Patrick Brooke, 1961 & 1966
Aquinas Design by Germano Facetti, 1961 & 1975
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ABRAM GAMES
In 1957–8, there had been a significant break with Penguin’s previous practice when Hans Schmoller asked Abram Games to art direct a limited quantity of Fiction covers which were to be printed in full colour, rather than the usual orange and black. Games’ solution was to organise the covers with clearly defined zones for text and image. Although in design terms these were striking covers they were largely unsupported by any promotional marketing material which left many booksellers bewildered. Allen Lane had always been reluctant to use such illustrated covers and the sales figures from the titles produced were not deemed sufficient to justify their extra expense, less than 30 titles appeared before the experiment was terminated by the Board.
Even disregarding the Games covers however, by the late 1950s there were considerable differences in design approach to covers evident across Penguin’s complete list. The Buildings of England, Classics, Handbooks, Kings, Poetry and Shakespeare series continued in the strict classicism perfected by Schmoller. If they were old-fashioned in a timeless, immaculate kind of way, the larger selling series such as Fiction and Crime looked old-fashioned in an ill-considered and dowdy manner, particularly in comparison with much of their competitors. After Games, Fiction struggled on with the vertical grid and Crime covers remained type-only on the horizontal grid.
Against this background, the Pelicans of the period are a real breath of fresh air. They feature contemporary illustration, a typography which attempts to work with the imagery, and a more relaxed approach to the publisher’s identity than before. They were commissioned by John Curtis, who died on 3 February 2005, but who I had been able to visit earlier when writing Penguin By Design.
Flames in the sky Illustration by Abram Games, 1958 The Big Show Illustration by David Caplan, 1958
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JAN TSCHICHOLD RE-DESIGN
Pelican border design Jan Tschichold 1948 The Earth Beneath Us illustration by Victor Reinganum, 1958
Two covers by John Curtis The Pyramids of Egypt and Education, both 1961
Born in 1928, John joined Penguin as Publicity Manager in 1952 and initially worked under Eunice Frost. In 1956 he went to the US office for 18 months, a trip which informed his next few years back at Harmondsworth when he was the temporary Art Director. The cover designs he inherited were in the Tschichold border design (e.g. The Earth Beneath Us) which allowed for the
inclusion of an image and sometimes some descriptive copy. John, in consultation with Hans Schmoller, grew more involved in the commissioning of illustration. Although he designed a few covers himself, his talent lay in the commissioning of others. He would have been familiar with the work of Robert Jonas for the US
Penguin subsidiary between 1942 to 47 when it enjoyed a brief period of freedom from Harmondsworth, and that certainly informed the kinds of illustration he commissioned. Schmoller was important too, in introducing Curtis to young illustrators such as David Gentleman, and to the graduates emerging from London’s arts schools, in particular the Royal College.
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THE US INFLUENCE The covers feature the work of both illustrators (e.g. David Gentleman and Juliet Renny) and designers (e.g. Colin Forbes and Alan Fletcher) for there would have been little differentiation between their education at that time. What is clear however, is that there is a distinct shift away from the traditional line art illustration which had hitherto dominated Penguin covers. In addition to the styles of illustration shown in the following selection of covers, note also the typefaces used. While many others series used Monotype and Linotype’s Classic book faces in the the Tschichold/Schmoller manner, the Pelicans of this period favour grotesques from the turn of the century, principally from the Sheffield foundry Stephenson Blake, with the occasional use of Monotype’s Grot 125/215/216 series, and more rarely Clarendon. None of then – not even Monotype Grotesque – could be described as ‘neutral’ in the sense that Swiss graphic designers understood the term. They were all faces which had come to popularity in Britain immediately after the war around the time of the Festival of Britain, when Modernism of a sort first made an impact on the British populace as a whole. Just as the typeface choice reflected an interest in ‘personality’, so too did their typographic arrangement. The notion of a separation of text and image, of clarity indeed is generally neglected and there is often an attempt to integrate or relate text to image. This is sometimes successful but it can often be slightly awkward and even naïve. Pelican border design Jan Tschichold, 1948 The Earth Beneath Us illustration by Victor Reinganum, 1958
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Despite the variety of pictorial and typographic approaches taken, the reader was never left in any doubt as to the publisher’s identity. The use of ‘Pelican blue’, the logo, and the words ‘A Pelican book’ form a constant on each title. Generally these are grouped in a narrow horizontal stripe at the foot of the cover. Because its size and position was constant, its colour could vary to suit the overall cover design, sometimes this is black, and towards the end of the period discussed it would be subtely linked to the main image.
The Theory of Evolution designed by Alan Fletcher, 1962 The Physical Basis of Personality designed by Juliet Renny, 1960
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THE ‘CURTIS’ GRID IN ACTION Psychiatry Today designed by David Gentleman, 1961. Gentleman’s work was first used by Schmoller. His most notable cover during this period was that for the Handbook Plats du jour in 1958. Between 1967 and 1978 he designed the covers for the New Penguin Shakespeare. Prehistoric India designed by Germano Facetti, 1961. An early Facetti design before he had imposed his own ideas upon the series. Note the ‘knockedback’ half-tone at the foot of the cover to create the Pelican stripe.
The cover format was continued by Germano Facetti after he started work as Cover Art Director at the start of 1961, but after seeing the success of Romek Marber’s Crime grid he decided to apply that design – with its separation of text and image – to both the Fiction and Pelican titles too.† Many of the Curtis cover illustrations were then adapted and re-used in the new grid although not all were adapted with equal sensitivity, as the examples reproduced here show. A personal favourite, The Organisation Man shows the problems most starkly. Beginning life as a Special in 1960, and despite the awkwardness of the type and the position of the logo, the cover worked amazingly well. But when the illustrative element was re-used on re-printing the title as a Pelican in the Marber grid (possibly in 1963) the idea of the individual as separate from the crowd was lost.
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Islam designed by Lewin Bassingthwaite, 1961. This illustration was used for this title until at least 1978 alongside a variety of different typographic treatments.
The Thirty Years War designed by Frederick Price, 1961. Another example of the ‘knocked-back’ half-tone creating the Pelican stripe The Business of Management designed by Erwin Fabian, 1961. A cover with some similarities to the US Penguins of the late 1940s with covers by Robert Jonas and others. Ancient Education and Today designed by Erwin Fabian, 1962. A funny illustration let down by a curious arrangement of type, this was one illustration which was redeemed later when re-used by the Marber grid. God in Action designed by Bernard Baker, 1961. An illustration with a nod to stained glass practice which was undergoing something of a revival at that time helped by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens’ work at Coventry Cathedral.
Although there must have been financial pressures to continue using the existing artwork, the fact that so many were adapted for use in the new grid is surely testament to their quality, and it was some years before many titles received new illustrations.
diagramatic and collagebased illustration they began continued through the whole of Facetti’s art direction and well into the 1970s under David Pelham.
† This standardisation when applied to the Fiction covers however only lasted a few years before Chief Editor Tony Godwin, appointed a separate Art Director – Alan Aldridge – for these titles in 1965.
Following page: The Living Brain designed by Ian Bradbery, 1961 Understanding Weather designed by Alan Fletcher, 1961 Before Philosophy designed by Colin Forbes, 1961
Even today, many have a clarity which still impresses, and the tradition of
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The Rise of the Meritocracy 1870-2033 Design by Hans Unger, 1961 & 1967
Mass, Length and Time Design by Derek Birdsall, 1961 & 1963
Relativity for the Layman Design by Edwin Taylor, 1961 & 1966
Organic Chemistry Today Design by J M Watson, 1961 & Ole Vedel 1964
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ARTWORK REUSED AFTER CURTIS
The Organisation Man design by Erwin Fabian, 1960 & 1968
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