Penguin Press Design blog Autumn '09

With the latest stress of dates and deadlines passed there is just time to bring the second round up of new Penguin Press covers, this time looking at the pick of covers being published this Autumn 2009. So all these books are just out in the shops or will be imminently.

There's been a few covers to get excited about this month, starting with Great Ideas Vol. IV.  Again, David Pearson and his merry team, Phil Baines, Catherine Dixon and Alistair Hall, have run riot over these covers producing another diverse, irresistible and often beautiful set of designs, many are saying the best yet. I've picked out five of my faves here, below, but you can see them all here.

    



And some very pleasant papery close ups:

 
We're also publishing four new books in a series called Great Stars, written by the eminent film guru David Thomson, each focusing on the lives of movie idols from the golden age of Hollywood. These cool graphic covers based on movie theatre marquees were designed in-house by Stefanie Posavec.

   

Stefanie has also been extremely busy these last few months working with Scott Schuman, also known as The Sartorialist, putting together a chic little Penguin book of the same name, featuring some of the photographic and stylistic highlights of his fashion blog so far. Last month saw Scott sign over 600 copies at the book's lively launch at Liberty.

 

There is also a very sharp collectors edition of The Sartorialist:

 

The pick of other Penguin Press paperback covers for Autumn ‘09 are:

The Penguin History of Modern Russia (design in-house by Richard Green)

 

The Candy Machine (design in-house by Richard Green)

And from our latest Allen Lane hardbacks:

1939: Countdown to War (design in-house by Coralie Bickford-Smith)

Justice (design in-house by Stefanie Posavec)

A couple of the coolest looking books new to the Modern Classics collection:

  

A lovely cover for Vitruvius, at last in Penguin Classics, and The Penguin Book of Japanese Verse:

   


Thanks to Samantha Johnson and Isabelle de Cat for the Classics picture selections.

A delicious round of illustrations by Richard Green on the cute little hardback, The Old Dog and Duck, published on our Particular Books imprint:

And, penultimately, we have the paperback cover for Deyan Sudjic's The Language of Things, designed by yours truly.

Deyan is someone living his very life in the golden section, surrounded daily by the beautifully crafted and elegantly formed (and that’s just the staff at the Design Museum, boom boom) so when it comes to designing his covers the stops have to be pulled way out.

And now, really lastly, we have put together this box of 100 postcards, called Postcards from Penguin, featuring Penguin covers from the past.

In the selection are some of the very first Penguin covers with their broad colour bands and charming typography. There are also many postcards that feature illustrated book covers and these were simply chosen for their irresistible charisma, like the lovely 60s paintings by Alan Aldridge on The Company She Keeps and There Must Be a Pony; the seismic David Pelham illustration for A Clockwork Orange; the perceptively light touch of Derek Birdsall on the covers for Chosen Words or Kiss Kiss; or the utterly 'Penguin' crime covers with illustrations by Romek Marber on books such as The Case of the Dangerous Dowager or The Case of the Howling Dog. And with a few surprises too.

That rounds up the pick of Penguin Press covers Autumn 2009.

Jim Stoddart
Art Director, Penguin Press

Comments

[Jess]

I adore 1939 - simple yet infinitely clever - that Coralie is good!

[Estuardo Choc]

Excellent vitruvious and russia's covers, each time i visit this blog -no, that's not regularly as i would like- i find very interesting projects or themes, keep with that.

[Derek]

These are great. You should tell the Caustic Cover Critic blog about them.

[kati]

Where can Americans get these postcards?

[Susan Myers]

Cannot find any other way to tell Penguin this, but did you know that your author information about David Stevenson includes a 'L' as his middle name?

This blocked a bookshop search for his book recently and stopped me ordering a copy. Professor Stevenson tells me he has no middle initial.

From your website:

David L. Stevenson

David Stevenson is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. He is also the author of The First World War and International Politics and Armaments and the Coming of War: Europe 1904–1914.

David Stevenson, talks to us about the influences and inspirations behind his new book, 1914-1918.

[financial spread betting]

Interesting design. Love the contrast of the purple and black.

[Jason]

Very good designs, as Jess said simple yet infinitely clever. I couldn't said it better myself. I also love the contrast of the purple and black

[Mauie (The Traveling Reader)]

The postcards are a must-have for any book collector especially a Penguin fan. Hmm. You've sparked an idea there. Great post! ;)