Monday 17 March 2008

Classic Stripes

There has been an interesting (at least to me, if not to anybody else) common element in most publishers' cover designs for their classics ranges. It's the horizontal band containing the author and title text.

Hence:


Penguin Classics and Penguin Modern Classics




The about-to-be-launched new look for Oxford World's Classics, and the short-lived redesign of Vintage Classics




Oneworld Classics and the newly launched Capuchin Classics



Perhaps this homogeneity (which still allows for a great variety of cover images) is the reason for Penguin Modern Classics and Vintage Classics recently changing their standard design yet again.

4 comments:

John Self said...

Now I'm a big Penguin Modern Classics follower, but haven't seen that Helen Garner in their lists, and it doesn't appear on Amazon. Any idea when it's due out?

JRSM said...

Yes, the Garner was put out by Penguin Australia, along with some others by her, some Elizabeth Jolleys, and a Randolph Stow and Robert Drewe to come. It came out last month, I think; I suspect you'd need to order it from an Australian online shop.

Penguin South Africa and Penguin India are also releasing their own Penguin Modern Classics, not all of which appear on Penguin UK's list.

Anonymous said...

Yes I see that now.

What I forgot to say earlier was not only that I hate the new Vintage Classics look, but that I loved the old - short-lived, as you say - one. It was elegant. It was timeless. It was, in fact, classic. What were they thinking?

There are authors I never would have read if they hadn't been in the creamy-coloured Vintage Classics, such as Sinclair Lewis or Aldous Huxley.

JRSM said...

Yes, that weirdly short-lived look was very nice: I would have preferred they stuck with it too. Ah well, nobody listens to we punters.