Marber

I thoroughly looked at Penguin book design where I found out about the Marber Grid, concieved by Polish graphic designer Romek Marber, in 1961 which became one of the most praised and recognised layouts of all time. Prior to the design and implementation of the now revered grid layout, Penguin tended to favour simple typographic covers for their publications.

Abraim Games, the consultant art director from 1956 to 1958, had tried to convince Penguin bosses to introduce pictorial designs before, but his proposals were refused. In 1961, after being impressed by some of Marber’s designs for The Economist, the then Penguin art director Germano Facetti commissioned him to produce covers for Simeon Potter’s books ‘Language in the Modern World’ and ‘Our Language.’  

Marber intricately analysed what was needed from the layout and designed his grid based on his observations. He was careful to consider that the mystery and crime series style had remained practically unchanged since Edward Young’s typographic designs were first adopted 25 years prior.As the crime series was one of Penguin’s most popular and recognisable series, he decided to keep the familiar green hue of the covers, but chose a ‘fresher’ shade.

By collating the typographic information and the colophon together within the top third of the page, he allowed for over two thirds of the cover to be used by the illustration, effectively giving the cover artwork the space needed to capture a browser’s attention and sell the book.