OUGD503: Penguine Research

Penguin Books

First starting publishing in 1935, engaging the audience with interesting contemporary covers. Penguin operate a range of size formats, depending on which collection/series the book is part of, e.g.: Fiction/Children's Book. It is essential to work to scale, perhaps developing and working with a grid system. It was calculated that 17,000 copies needed to be sold prior to making a profit, yet today Penguin are deep routed as a hub of innovative publishing design, especially with relevance to their covers.

Jan Tischold developed a refined colour pallet (recognisable by language and genre), grid system,  alongside a consistent logo and typeface collection (aiding consistency throughout issues). The use of Gill Sans faded to Helvetica, with the Marlber Grid coming into use in 1962 successfully giving individually artistic approaches to each edition, in a consistent way.

Things to Research:

- Past winners backgrounds and winning designs
- Judging Pannel and their backgrounds
- Brief history of company you are designing for
- How Penguin select what stories to reproduce
- Colour Schemes evolution
- Target Audiences and how they interact with design
- Where are they sold? Is it seasonal? Are their time/locational impacts to consider? Is it global or   released to one 'culture'?
- Factors outside the competition e.g.: Honorary birthdays/anniversaries of the author or related topic
- Deeper analysis into narrative, Cliff-Notes explore intertextual references and psychological factors.
- Other Media representations and reproductions (film/poster/interactive adaptations)
- Print techniques specialist to area, e.g.: Easily printable covers and sleeves -what is the best
solution?
- Other influences the original may have experienced at the time of production. Eg: What art or significant design was around the time of Harper Lee, To Kill a Mocking Bird?
-Typefaces and Grid Systems related to content/time period- even adapting parts to break these conventions?

Group Ideas:

-The authors intentions (Themes/ Influences)
-Year of publishing, important events or design influence? (Typographic Style)
- Book Reviews and opinions
- Previous rejected designs
- Previous competitions the judges have been part of, what they have awarded before. Do they have personal interests you can incorporate? e.g.: Are the judges on Instagram? Can we follow their interests and their own inspiration? Who/what they follow? Do they have personality?
- Identification of a unique approach or concept)
- Current Trends (book-cover design trends)- do you want to follow or stand out?
-The success of ambiguous visual responses- can you understand the cover without knowing the narrative or concept? How does this respond to the purpose of a poster/book cover- to advertise or create personal emotive responses?
- Visual signifiers or triggers
- Explore the tone of voice or 'genre' within the book.
- Advertising collateral (eg: Billboards/ Posters/Video promo/ Digitised elements)
- Analyse your own visual style, interests and useable modes of communication
- Analyse the field of product, is it part of a series? Is it a 'Modern Classic'? Does it need to fit to the ascetic of Penguin- how and what we associate.


Tactics:

- Research one book thoroughly, analyse content and how this relates to visual depictions
- Research previous winners, judges and related creative fields
- Explore ambiguity as a successful mode of communication
- Research free associations, Visual Signifiers and Semiotics
- Keep it minimal and don't over design. Seek feedback and cut back elements where necessary and appropriate- communicate tone through innovative simple visual signifiers.
- Collaborate where possible to maximise quality, don't limit to screen
- Visual research into Innovative and Award winining work by Penguin