Phil Baines (1958–2024)

2006. Amazing book about the first 70 years of Penguin Books. Focuses mostly on book design. Tons of pictures of cover art and discussion of typography. Delightfully British-y.

This is a fantastic book for anyone who loves children's books, but also for those interested in style and design throughout the 20th century. It charts the evolution of Puffin's image from 1940 to the present, and spares no expense on the quality and number of images reproduced. However, it is not really a gallery of all your favourite cover art - rather, the book is a survey of cover styles, with a generous selection of examples from each period. Phil Baines provides a sometimes critical show more commentary on the innovations made, and how well he believes they worked in terms of graphic design. The contents of the books illustrated are not discussed, beyond identifying whether they are fiction or not.

It was fascinating to me to see the beautiful covers from the very first Puffins - way before my time, and which I have never seen even second hand. As the designs became more familiar to me from my own library, there were plenty that brought back memories, and some that made me cringe! The teen imprints, Peacock Books and Puffin Plus, are also discussed, as are plenty of Picture Puffins.

This would make a great gift for a book lover or for someone interested in graphic design history. This was published to celebrate Puffin's 70th birthday, but it is we who have received a lovely gift! show less

This is a gorgeous book… as a bookbinder, I try not to enthuse too much about cover-art since I know it’s the least relevant part of the book to most people (isn’t there some sort of saying…) but if ever there was a book to bring up the subject of looks, this is it. I don’t know if it was available in hardback, but the paperback cover version is lovely, with mock dust-cover flaps, striking, (there’s something about that ‘penguin orange’) and everything about it makes me want show more to pick it up and revel in the wonderful book cover illustrations again.

*cough* er… was I drooling? Anyway. What you get inside this book is a history of the evolution of Penguin cover design, some of the motivations for lines and imprints introduced, how they both changed and changed with the market, the impact of the war on titles released, changes to the typography both inside and on the front covers of each line; none of which, of course, would mean anything without a history of the company itself, which is given in rather a necessarily potted form; as Baines says in the introduction, there is not enough space to include a complete catalogue of covers – by extension there is not enough room for a full biography of each member of the board, although Allen Lane is given plenty of … oh, god… coverage. Sorry.

The book covers used to illustrate these changes are chosen well and there’s no chance of flipping pages without stopping to actually examine each cover… Baines is also not afraid to point out flaws as he goes. Penguin’s story is one I find fascinating anyway, but I think it’s accessibly written and anyone with the vaguest interest in books or graphic design would be won over by the constantly evolving approach to not only catching the paperback reader’s eye with artwork, but catching their imagination with a brand that they would always feel had the best shelf appeal. show less

I really enjoyed this look through the design of the Penguin Covers (and love the use of book spines to create a typical penguin cover!) This only falls down with the use of orange text for footnotes (sidenotes really) and personality/place photographs, I found them fairly difficult to read against the white, normally this wouldn't lose a book a full point, but this is a book criticising typography and style.

It's an interesting wander through the different cover art and uses of the logo. Now show more I want to find a copy of the Penguin Knitting book by James Norbury, I love the penguin logo on that book as much as I like the look of the book, I reckon there's entertainment potential there.

A book for book, printing and typography geeks. show less