Penguin Classics - 60th Anniversary

60th Anniversary

In 2007, Penguin Classics released a set of five books limited to 1,000 copies each, known as the Designer Classics. Each book was specially designed to celebrate Penguin Classic's Diamond Anniversary. The cover for Tender Is the Night was designed by Sam Taylor-Wood. Taylor-Wood used an ethereal black-and-white photograph printed onto tracing paper. An elegant young man stands before with his hands in his pocket and bare feet. He perfectly sums up the elegance and fragility of Nicole and Dick Diver's world. The book is wrapped in a cloth hardcover and has a Perspex slipcase. The Idiot was designed by Ron Arad. Arad's book has no cover so the reader will pick it up and read the author's first words. It is stripped back to show the glue and thread in the spine which is visible through an acrylic slipcase (with a lid) with a fresnel lens so the text appears to move as the lid is removed. Arad explains: "By not wanting to have a cover, it ended with the book becoming an amazing object that is alive, but which maintains its transparency. It became a glorious box with a book inside—almost like a monument." The cover for Madame Bovary was designed by Manolo Blahnik. The jacket features Blahnik's original painting of Emma with her lover, and the book is protected by a Perspex slipcase. He said: "I wanted to come up with something light, sensual... something frivolous, because this is a novel about the dangers of frivolity. And I wanted something sexy too, cheeky. I usually focus on one part of the foot—the shoe. For this project, I had to consider a whole scene, there had to be a context, which is new for me. But I managed to sneak in a pair of shoes anyway. She wore good shoes." Fuel designed the cover for Crime and Punishment. Graphic designers Stephen Sorrell and Damon Murray have used Cyrillic and English type. Stephen explains: "This visual device echoes the mind games in the head of Raskolnikov as he battles with his voice of conscience. We want the design to form the shape and feel of the book as a whole not just its cover." They have screen printed the cover on the same brown craft paper used for the text. The book has a Perspex slipcase. Finally, the cover for Lady Chatterley's Lover was created by Paul Smith.