The Penguin Book company was founded in Britain in 1935 by Allen Lane. His idea was to offer quality books at the same price as a pack of cigarettes, and as readily available: the books were to be sold in train stations, general stores and corner shops.Penguin Books proved extremely popular and different divisions were created: Pelican Books (an educational series) and the ever-popular Penguin Classics, introduced in 1945.
From the beginning, Penguin had a progressive approach to cover graphics and typography. The company's visual identity was under the direction of German typographer Jan Tschichold in the 1940's and Italian art director Germano Facetti in the 1960's.
The result were books as notorious for their graphic design as they were for the literature they contained. Today, Penguin Books have a fan following and collectors network worthy of any Star Trek series...
To see a really cool collection of vintage covers, click here.images: flickr.com/photos/joekral
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