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As part of the Holburn exhibition Bath of “50 years of Penguin” writer, designer and typographer Phil Baines discussed his favourite Penguin book covers taking us on a journey from the the original three striped cover through to the present with designs from David Pearson.

What I find interesting is how it can still maintain such a strong brand without it hardly being noticeable on most books, today the author is the brand as opposed to the publisher, some parts such as The Classics range maintains a strong look feel and identity while others are seen not to need it at all.

Phil suggests its about striking a balance, advertising is also used carefully, while others areas are seen not to need it so much, they found that during the early 90’s that branding worked against them, they were seen as being too bold and stuffy and so made a conscious decision to drop it in order to attract a younger market, now they’ve picked it up again and have begun to be more consistent with it, at the end of the day its about selling titles and as with many companies there is also deferring attitudes about how the branding should be used within its different departments.