Penguin Books

BRIEF: Using the Marber Grid format - famously known design for the Penguin book covers - produce a set of Graphic/Illustrative/Photographic design ideas for these book titles:


"Twist And Shout"
"The Divided Self"
"An Ideal Home"
"Objects Of Desire"

For this project I wanted to explore new artists and designers, and generally just try out different skills to see what I could come up with.

The Divided Self

Twist And Shout

An Ideal Home

Objects of Desire

For this set of books i used very basic skills of photocopying to just try out the scale of the Marber Grid. Although the design is very basic and not altogether professional, I think I portrayed some interesting inital ideas for the titles of the books.

The Divided Self

An Ideal Home

The concept of designing these book covers was to explore much more simpler techniques. However, because I had started off so simple, I found it very difficult to come up with designs for all the titles. Although I do like working in this way, it doesn't necessarily serve a purpose for most ideas.

Objects of Desire

Twist And Shout

These Book covers were inspired my illustrator Oliver Jeffers - who works illustrating children books. By taking this style of work and recreating it in my own way I found a new skill which i would like to experiment much more with in the future.

Objects of Desire

Twist and Shout

The Divided Self

An Ideal Home

This set was inspired my comedian/artist Noel Fielding. Although Noel's work isn't used for design purposes, I still found his ideas very intriguing. When I stumbled across his art work I was compelled to use the brash colours and painting effect he used. Although the outcome wasn't exactly perfect I still found it interested to experiment with these new materials.

This set of books was completely different to how I am used to working. But the whole idea of using this designer as inspiration was to see if I could come up with any further ideas from exploring. Unfortunately after I finished this set I was not interested in trying out the techniques further - so instead moved onwards.

With the inspiration from researching new ideas, i came across  an artist who used delicate drawing skills to reflect an idea. I enjoyed working delicately, however the process soon became tedious when coming up with new ideas - a skill which would maybe involve more planning before beginning.

Using the inspiration of Michelle Thompson once again, I produced my favourite set of books. I Find the colour separation and use of greyscale effective in her work so I recreated the idea using my own skills. What I would like to continue to do from this is incorporating the use of digital editing using photoshop to help develop ideas and skills further.

BRIEF PART2: We would now like you to create your own designs without using the 'Marber Grid'. You must still keep a consistency throughout the set.

Recommended Reading: With the choice of design books we were given, I researched ideas in "Penguin by Design" and "Penguin by Illustration". Doing so helped me to focus on different ideas and look into new techniques by other designers.

For this set of books I used my old skills combined with new ones and produced a set of books which I was happy with however they didn't meet my expectations. With all the research I did, I didn't use the opportunity to express my new ideas for the project.

I really liked the way that designer/illustrators Marion Deuchars worked, as he used a combination of quirky, abstract and collaged design. But I didn't get the opportunity to try out new ideas. On the other hand, I find I really enjoy working in my own style, and the more practice I get the greater the range of ideas  I can get.