Eye Magazine

This book’s title is a librarian’s nightmare. It differs by only three letters from that of a previous title (Penguin by Design, 2005), and one of its editors, Phil Baines, is the author of that earlier book.

Penguin by Designers is likely to confuse future researchers and students. However, those who succeed in identifying both publications will find that these books complement each other perfectly.

Although the new book has the same subject as the earlier one – the (cover) design of Penguin books between 1935 and 2005 – the two publications could hardly be more different. Baines’s book was an ambitious overview of one company’s design policies throughout its existence. Penguin by Designers is, essentially, a collection of personal stories from some of the people who gave form to these policies over the past 50 years, recorded during a one-day gathering on a hot day in June 2005 at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum... [EXTRACT]