# Penguin Paperback Design (Three Bands to the Marber Grid)

> The cover system of Penguin Books, London, from 1935 until Germano Facetti left in 1972. Edward Young's cover set author and title in Gill Sans on a white band between two bands of one colour naming the genre: orange for fiction, green for crime. Genre colours and type-only covers came from Hamburg's Albatross paperbacks. Jan Tschichold (1947-49) fixed type positions and redrew the penguin; Erik Ellegaard Frederiksen's vertical grid, adopted by Hans Schmoller in 1951, made room for a picture; Romek Marber's 1961 grid put the type in a ruled top strip and a picture in two-thirds of the cover.

- Period: 1935–1972
- Where: Western Europe
- Origin: London: Allen Lane's Penguin Books, launched on 30 July 1935 with sixpenny paperbacks that took their size, type-only covers and colour-coding by genre from the Albatross Modern Continental Library (Hamburg, 1932), in a cover scheme by the 21-year-old Edward Young, Penguin's first production manager (other accounts call him the office junior), set in Gill Sans, Monotype's sans after Johnston's London Underground alphabet; reformed by Jan Tschichold (1947-49) and Hans Schmoller, then by art director Germano Facetti (from 1961) with Romek Marber's grid, until Facetti left in 1972
- Branch: Rational modernism
- Also known as: Penguin covers, Penguin three-band cover, Penguin horizontal grid, Penguin vertical grid, Marber grid
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/penguin-paperback/

## Use it with care

The Penguin name and penguin symbol belong to the publisher, which still reissues its classic grid covers, and many cover photographs and drawings remain in their makers' copyright: draw your own emblem, do not combine an orange or green three-band cover with a bird emblem and a publisher cartouche so that it passes for Penguin, and never present a new design as a Penguin book.

## How it works

- Design the series, not the book: fix one template of bands, emblem and type positions, and let only the author, the title and, later, the picture change from title to title.
- Code each series with one flat colour plus white, and keep it for every title in that series (Penguin's code: orange for fiction, green for crime, dark blue for biography, cerise for travel, red for drama).
- Set author and title in one typeface in a white field, almost always a sans-serif: centred, evenly spaced Gill Sans for the banded cover; Standard or Helvetica ranged left beneath a rule for the 1960s grid, titles in lowercase after the initial capital (Modern Classics kept Eric Gill's serif Joanna until 1966).
- Put one small drawn emblem of your own in the same place on every cover (Penguin's was the penguin Edward Young sketched at London Zoo), and keep other ornament to a framed series name and the rules that divide the bands.
- When pictures come in, give them a fixed field and keep the type out of it: a central panel between the colour bands, or the lower two-thirds beneath the title strip, filled with a photograph, collage or drawing that sets the book's mood.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (defining)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (defining)
- [Dynamic asymmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Modular grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/modular-grid/) (characteristic)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (characteristic)
- [Measured density](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/measured-density/) (characteristic)
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (characteristic)
- [Generous white space](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/generous-white-space/) (occasional)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Humanist sans](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/humanist-sans/) (defining)
- [Grotesque & neo-grotesque](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grotesque-and-neo-grotesque/) (characteristic)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (characteristic)
- [Flush left, ragged right](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flush-left-ragged-right/) (characteristic)
- [Wide letterspacing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/wide-letterspacing/) (occasional)
- [Humanist & Garalde serif](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/humanist-and-garalde-serif/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (defining)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (occasional)
- [Dark ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dark-ground/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (defining)
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (occasional)
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (occasional)
- [Non-representational](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (defining)

### Ornament
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (defining)
- [Rules & bars](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rules-and-bars/) (characteristic)
- [Restrained accents](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/restrained-accents/) (characteristic)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Typography only](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/typography-only/) (defining)
- [Straight photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/straight-photography/) (characteristic)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Photomontage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photomontage/) (occasional)
- [Treated photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/treated-photography/) (occasional)
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (occasional)
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Letterpress](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/letterpress/) (characteristic)
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (characteristic)

### Tone & intent
- [Rational & objective](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rational-and-objective/) (defining)
- [Authoritative & institutional](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/authoritative-and-institutional/) (characteristic)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (occasional)
- [Warm & approachable](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/warm-and-approachable/) (occasional)
- [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (occasional)

Avoids: Eclectic mixing, Ornamented display, Script, Blackletter, Experimental & distorted, Abundant decoration, Floral & vegetal, Horror vacui, Gradients

Palette: #f6f3ea, #ef7d22, #2f8a4e, #1f3a68, #c8285f, #1a1a1a

Typefaces: Gill Sans (Eric Gill, Monotype: author and title on Edward Young's 1935 banded cover, kept with much improved letterspacing in Tschichold's reform), Akzidenz-Grotesk (sold in English-speaking countries as Standard: Romek Marber's 1961 Penguin Crime grid, for continuity with the Gill, titles lowercase after an initial capital), Helvetica (with Standard, the sans of Germano Facetti's covers, in the same sizes and positions for author, title and series name; it replaced Joanna on the Modern Classics in March 1966), Joanna (Eric Gill: Hans Schmoller's Penguin Modern Classics jackets, kept on Facetti's October 1963 Marber-grid reset until March 1966)

Known for: Edward Young, the cover scheme of the first ten Penguins (30 July 1935), beginning with André Maurois's Ariel: colour bands above and below a white panel with author and title in Gill Sans, a 'Penguin Books' cartouche in the upper band, and the penguin Young sketched at London Zoo; The series colour code: orange for general fiction, green for crime, cerise for travel and adventure, dark blue for biography, yellow for miscellaneous, red for drama, purple for essays and belles-lettres, grey for world affairs; Jan Tschichold, the redesign of some 500 Penguins and the Penguin Composition Rules (1947-1949), with the penguin redrawn in eight variations; The 'medallion' covers of the early Penguin Classics, with a roundel illustration, from Tschichold's years; The vertical grid for Penguin fiction, devised by Erik Ellegaard Frederiksen at Tschichold's request and adopted by Hans Schmoller in 1951, its central white stripe leaving room for an illustration between the colour bands; the standard fiction cover through the 1950s; Abram Games, cover for Paul Brickhill's The Great Escape (Penguin, 1957-58; V&A, colour offset lithograph, O549298); Stephen Russ, patterned covers for the Penguin Poets, e.g. W. H. Auden (1958; V&A proof, colour lithography and letterpress, O544782); Romek Marber, the Penguin Crime grid (from 1961): a fresher green, a three-band ruled title strip in Standard ranged left, and an image over two-thirds of the cover, as on the Lord Peter Wimsey novels of Dorothy L. Sayers, each with a small white cut-out figure, and Simenon's Lost Moorings

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [London Transport Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/london-transport-design.md) (1908–1966)
- Influenced by: [International Typographic Style](https://stylogeny.com/styles/swiss-international.md) (1950–1975)
- Alike in its design choices: [Vicente Rojo & Mexican Editorial Modernism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/mexican-editorial-modernism.md) (1953–1990), 65% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Neo-Swiss Revival](https://stylogeny.com/styles/swiss-revival.md) (2005–present), 62% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [GOV.UK Design (GDS Style)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/govuk-design-system.md) (2012–present), 61% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Japanese Postwar Modernism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/japanese-postwar-modern.md) (1950–1990), 61% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Contemporary Arabic & Dual-Script Type Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/arabic-latin-bilingual-type.md) (2004–present), 60% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Plain Tobacco Packaging](https://stylogeny.com/styles/plain-packaging.md) (2012–present), 59% alike

## Sources

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Books (launch on 30 July 1935 at sixpence; the brand 'owed something to the short-lived Albatross imprint'; the '21-year-old office junior Edward Young'; three bands with Gill Sans in the central white panel and the 'Penguin Books' cartouche in the upper band; the full colour code; Lane resisting cover images for several years; Tschichold's 500 books, Composition Rules and 'medallion' classics; the vertical grid with Schmoller as the 1950s fiction standard; Facetti hired January 1961; the Marber grid; the end of the defining era when Facetti left in 1972; Popular Penguins, 2008)
- Design Museum, 'Penguin Books', https://designmuseum.org/penguin-books (the office junior Young sent to sketch penguins at London Zoo and designer of the first ten covers; orange, green, blue genre colours; Tschichold's template and eight penguins; the vertical grid devised by Erik Ellegaard Frederiksen at Tschichold's behest, adopted after Schmoller modified it in 1951, its three vertical stripes leaving room for illustration; Facetti 1961-1972; it dates Facetti's commission to Marber to 1962, against 1961 in Poynor (Eye 53) and Nadel (Eye 57))
- Rick Poynor, 'Penguin Crime', Eye no. 53, vol. 14, Autumn 2004, https://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/penguin-crime-text-in-full (Marber's Standard, the banded title section with rules, an image over two-thirds of the space, the Sayers, Simenon and Father Brown covers, Facetti's correction crediting Marber)
- Dan Nadel, review of Phil Baines, Penguin by Design, Eye no. 57 (2005), https://eyemagazine.com/review/article/no-frills-chronicle-of-a-publisher (Young, 'Penguin's first production manager', and his horizontal grid of 1935; Tschichold's 1948 reform with Gill Sans and improved letterspacing; Marber's 'more image-friendly grid' of 1961)
- Jan Middendorp, review of Steve Hare and Phil Baines (eds), Penguin by Designers, Eye, Summer 2007, https://eyemagazine.com/review/article/from-the-typographic-to-the-visual (the Marber grid on crime, fiction and Pelican titles; Facetti's 'transition from the typographic to the visual')
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romek_Marber (Facetti's commission for Penguin Crime; the image just over two-thirds of the cover; three title bands ranged left; Facetti adopting it for the blue Pelicans and orange literature)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germano_Facetti (phototypesetting, the Marber grid, offset litho and photography on Penguin covers; Standard and Helvetica in the same sizes and positions for author, title and series (unreferenced; Joanna on Modern Classics until 1966); Swiss influence; black Penguin Classics from 1963 (citation needed there); left Penguin in 1972)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Tschichold (500 Penguin paperbacks, the Penguin Composition Rules, succeeded by Hans Schmoller)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Young_(publisher) (born 17 November 1913; joined Penguin in 1935 as production manager; designed the cover scheme, devised the colour schemes with Lane and drew the original penguin logo)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatross_Books (founded in Hamburg in 1932; layout by Giovanni Mardersteig at 181 x 111 mm; colour-coded by genre; Allen Lane 'had adopted many of Albatross' ideas', including the standard size, covers with typography and logo but no illustrations, and colour coding by type of content; Albatross's own code differed: green for travel, orange for humour and satire)
- Den Gulden Winckel 31 (1932), 'The Albatross', https://dbnl.org/tekst/_gul001193201_01/_gul001193201_01_0066.php (Albatross covers coloured by content: blue love stories, green travel, purple biography and history, yellow psychological stories and essays, red detective and adventure, orange humour and satire)
- Publishing History, 'Albatross Modern Continental Library', https://www.publishinghistory.com/albatross-modern-continental-library.html (the series organised by Albatross Verlag in Hamburg in 1932)
- Penguin, 'Penguin Modern Classics design, part 1', https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2017/penguin-modern-classics-design-part-1.html (Schmoller's first Modern Classics jackets in Eric Gill's Joanna; Facetti's October 1963 reset on the Marber grid, keeping the bluish-grey scheme; Schmoller persuading him to stay with Joanna; Joanna replaced by Helvetica in March 1966)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Classics ('Black Classics': black covers with artwork appropriate to the topic and period of the work, after Facetti's arrival in 1961)
- Claire Squires and Alec Spencer, 'Penguin celebrates its 80th birthday – and cashes in on its past', The Conversation, 25 February 2015, https://theconversation.com/penguin-celebrates-its-80th-birthday-and-cashes-in-on-its-past-37951 (in 1963 Facetti changed the Classics covers, against E. V. Rieu's wishes, to the 'Black Classics')
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gill_Sans (released by Monotype in 1928, based on Edward Johnston's 1916 Underground Alphabet; used on Penguin's covers from 1935)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_(typeface) (Eric Gill's serif on the old-style Renaissance model; used on the blue-grey Penguin Modern Classics in the 1960s before Helvetica)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akzidenz-Grotesk ('sometimes been sold as Standard in English-speaking countries')
- University of Bristol Special Collections, Penguin Archive, https://www.bristol.ac.uk/library/special-collections/strengths/penguin/ (the Penguin collection from its first book, André Maurois's Ariel, 1935)
- Victoria and Albert Museum, Abram Games, The Great Escape, Penguin cover, 1957-8, colour offset lithograph, O549298, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O549298/
- Victoria and Albert Museum, Stephen Russ, proof for the Penguin Poets cover W. H. Auden, 1958, colour lithography and letterpress, O544782, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O544782/
- Phil Baines, Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005 (Allen Lane, 2005)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Penguin Paperback Design (Three Bands to the Marber Grid)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/penguin-paperback/