14 Comments

Are they honestly allowed to do this? What do Penguin have to say? Because there's a charitable element, does this make it ok?
Tom Skipp
2010-09-07 13:17:44

I like these; I really like these, however ever since the increased popularity of the classic penguin paper back design the consumer market has been flooded with designs in this vain which can be found printed of anything more mugs to bags and postcard sets.

Is this just adding to the already over saturation ed penguin classic design band wagon? I think yes.

PS. what exactly does this have to do with the Olympic?
Jack Moose
2010-09-07 13:31:36

They do look very nice, but it all feels a little bit 'done' now. Were any of these done in collaboration with Olly Moss? It's very similar to his Video Game Classics from a few months back:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ollym/sets/72157612646893506/
Ryan
2010-09-07 13:34:13

Sorry if I'm missing something here, but... Who the hell is Pamela Schneider??
Paul Keers
2010-09-07 14:11:14

@ Paul Keers

Pamela Schneider is First Edition's owner. I've added this into the text above now.
 ElizaWilliams
2010-09-07 14:18:21

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mscorley/3262534318/in/set-72157613493686930/

http://spacesick.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-can-read-movies-series.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlepixel/sets/72157594269138651/

http://ghostbox.greedbag.com/dept/~cds-0/

http://www.viget.com/inspire/take-something-new-and-make-it-old/

http://mscorley.blogspot.com/2009/02/harry-potter-redesign.html

Make up your own mind about the originality of this idea, I know what I think...

There was mention of ad agencies potentially ripping something off here: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/august/words-film-everynone-radiolab, but when the ripping happens no comment whatsoever from the CR people.

Besides, I can appreciate this sort of exercise when it's for fun, like the examples above. But as a champaign it's not that clever. The genres are wrong anyway; 'Great Expectations' would never have been a 1960s Pelican, more like a Penguin Classic, and they got the typeface wrong on the Marber/Facetti covers. If your going to 'pastiche' Penguin, at least get the details right.
Luke Archer
2010-09-07 15:07:46

Got champaign on the mind after looking at those covers. I meant campaign.
Luke Archer
2010-09-07 15:10:44

If in doubt, parody.
Rob
2010-09-07 16:00:10

poor execution by someone who isn't well read.
Silly Goose
2010-09-07 17:07:24

Olly Moss did it better than anyone else, he's going to be the designer of this generation. Stop pinching ideas big boys.
Dave
2010-09-07 17:37:52

Great attempt of a unique classic style, especially the old rendering you have put on these designs. I have got to say the that the style is more like Penguin books than Puffin, Jan Tschichold would probably have a biased opinion on these books as it was his joint design way back in the 40's and it still looks good today.
An overall good attempt but know where near as good as the originals.

On another note there are better charities than the Olympics, as if that needs funding from a few designs when every other corporation is funding it.
Sam Desborough
2010-09-08 09:27:43

I like the concepts and the execution (I especially like the Turning of the Corkscrew cover as it reminds me also of Saul Bass designed titles for a Hitchcock movie). However, I question the immediate effectiveness of them when viewed by a potential punter. I didn't really get it and kind'a scanned over vital info because they looked so familiar as book cover designs. It wasn't until reading the CR picture captions that I realised what it was.

Also, I (like previous posters) would like to know where they stand with Penguin books.
Shrimpography
2010-09-10 04:54:58

Mmmmmmerlot
Graphic Design Manchester
2010-09-13 16:59:05

There has been various attempts to pastiche Penguins seminal book cover design, some more successful than others, this not being one of them.

The context doesn't really make sense and like a previous comment pointed out, the attention to detail is poor. Penguin's designs are know for the meticulous typographic design and also the colour coding that relates to specific genre, to just blazingly ignore this is a bit of an insult to Penguin.

Just a bit lazy and irrelevant, anyone could pinch the design and 'cool' Penguin have created and just change the titles and logo to something of their own?
Joel Wells
2010-09-23 11:00:33

Tell us what you think

Your comment: What happens with my feedback?

What happens with my feedback?

We no longer require you to register and have a password in order to comment, simply fill in the form below. All comments are moderated so you may experience a short delay before your comment appears. CR encourages comments to be short and to the point. As a general rule, they should not run longer than the original post. Comments should show a courteous regard for the presence of other voices in the discussion. We reserve the right to edit or delete comments that do not adhere to this standard.

Name: (required)

Title:

e-Mail: (required)

URL