Design Principles- MARBER GRID

ROMEK MARBER'S GRID

In 1961, a Polish graphic designer by the name of Romek Marber, conceived a grid layout for Penguin book covers that 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. Facetti was so inspired by Marber’s design that he also used it for Penguin’s fiction range, and would later apply it again, practically unchanged, to the blue Pelican books. Eventually Marber’s layout became the standard layout for the entire range of Penguin paperbacks.

SIMPLE TIMELINE OF MARBER'S LIFE

This timeline needs to feature on each of my penguin book cover designs, it can be featured on either the front or back cover.