JKR

Penguin

If the point of a brand mark is to guarantee quality then Penguin excels. My father, a lifelong devotee, describes them as ‘my university’. Many share his trust and appreciation. Like holding a Guinness at the bar, one feels part of a select band reading a Penguin on the tube or beach. Generations of investment in great design has helped earn this status.

The original (tube map inspired?) system of distinctive coloured stripes met the business strategy – they would have been cheap to produce (compared to myriad cover designs and illustrations).  However, we don’t want cheap brands, we want great brands cheap. Penguin used good paper, quality binding and typography that allowed the words to breathe – they were design of hardback quality in soft covers.

This flightless bird evolves and adapts beautifully as the years go by, radically changing design approach in response to market forces and trends - from the graphical covers of the sixties, to the commercial designs of today. In part, Penguin achieved coherent change through rigourous grids, but more fundamentally from having a strong in-house design culture. This ethos was not elitist – Edward Young was a 21 year old office junior when he drew the logo and devised the colour coding system. A secretary came up with the name.

Luck also plays a part in great brand design. Still young as WW2 erupted, Penguin’s format proved the perfect fit for a battledress pocket. On such quirks are great brands built.

By Silas Amos, jkr. For the full article, see this week's copy of Marketing magazine.