Comments on: Penguin Great Ideas Series

By: Georgy

Georgy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:58:20 +0000

I *love* the cover to The Gettysburg Address – saw that on a design site a while ago and couldn’t stop drooling. I’m a sucker for anything involving typography ;)

By: Tricia

Tricia — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:35:50 +0000

Ookah, I’m a little jealous that YOU can design a Penguin Classic, and I can’t. The US Penguin site is always behind the UK Penguin site (at least, that’s what I gather from coveting the penguin classics series designed by coralie bickford-smith, and having to wait until it was released in the US). Side note: Although I think this is a great idea, I shared this with my friend and he said, “I can’t decide if that’s cool or LAZY.” Ahahaha.

You’ll have to share your design for Alice in Wonderland!

By: Tricia

Tricia — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:22:27 +0000

AHA I knew you would want these, Maria.

Penn Station and the Port Authority book stores had them? That’s ridiculous. I don’t even think I’ve seen them at a Borders in Chicago, but maybe they’re hiding, and not as well displayed as they are at the Book Cellar.

At my experimental high school, I didn’t read much of what’s featured in the Great Ideas series. Maybe selections of the Communist Manifesto and Lao Tzu in history classes? If someone had shown me one of these books, however, I probably would have been enthusiastic to read it.

By: Maria

Maria — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:27:12 +0000

OH MY GOD, I have been coveting these! Not that I live in NY anymore, but they were always at Penn Station and Port Authority book stores (remarkably good bookstores — sort of distilled down to the good stuff). I swear, if in HS they had given me one of these books instead of some shitty copy in some old textbook, I would have enjoyed them more.

Also, on amazon.com you can get them in box sets: Great Ideas Box Set #1 Except that is not all of them… I wish you could get ALL of them at once.

By: Ookah

Ookah — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:13:52 +0000

Ho, I just bought this one : http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/covers/all/8/1/9780141036618H.jpg from the serie 3. I basically bought it for the cover (design & Orwell, I’m there), but the book in itself is really interesting too.
I didn’t even know it was such a huge collection, thanks Tricia !!

Ho by the way, penguin is doing something awesome called “my penguin” : you can have you own design for the cover of any book you chose (from a selection of like 20 classics, Alice in Wonderland, Dracula, the Great Gatsby, Animal Farm…). It’s 5£ for each book, which is almost like it’s free, and you get to have your own personalized book !
Here’s the link : http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/mypenguin/index.html

I’m going to work on the Alice in Wonderland cover while it’s out of stock…