Source: www.jimstoddart.co.uk Jim Stoddart. License: All Rights Reserved.

Launched on February 22, 2018, Penguin Modern is series of low-priced paperback editions of modern literature by Penguin Books.

Each little book in the Penguin Modern series offers a concentrated hit of its author’s work. From complete stories to essays and speeches to poems, these books celebrate the groundbreaking writers who today define the radical spirit of Penguin Modern Classics.

Initially spanning fifty titles, each book from the series costs £1. The full collection is also available as a box set.

For this series, Penguin’s Art Director Jim Stoddart specified ITC Avant Garde Gothic, in tightly spaced caps, and with its iconic alternates and ligatures, like the one for TH, or the nested double L. The color used for all books is referred to as “eau-de-nil”, i.e. a pale turquoise.

Source: www.amazon.fr License: All Rights Reserved.

From Mark Sinclair’s article for Creative Review:

The cover designs for the new series are “all about the titling typography”, says Art Director Jim Stoddart, who explains that favouring type instead of imagery over the 50 books enabled Penguin to keep the price for the series low.

“A fundamental ingredient for these new covers is Herb Lubalin’s Avant Garde typeface which is already thoroughly in use as ‘brand font’ on all Penguin Modern Classics and originally selected for the job as a symbol of modernistic progression,” says Stoddart.

“For the pictureless Penguin Modern covers, rather than use the familiar upper- and lower-case setting, we’ve switched to all-caps – where Avant Garde has its own amazing and extensive ligatures – creating an even more potent cover appearance. This way these little covers fearlessly compliment the progressive, creative, often powerful writing within the books.”

The dedicated website has a complete list of all titles, with a short summary for each of them, and an animated version of the cover designs.

Source: www.amazon.de License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.amazon.ca License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.amazon.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.creativereview.co.uk License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.amazon.fr License: All Rights Reserved.

For the jacket of the hardback edition of Neil MacGregor’s wonderful Germany. Memories of a Nation, Penguin art director Jim Stoddart chose a thoroughly German sans serif, Akzidenz-Grotesk (the classic, beloved Medium weight), and paired it with Bauer Bodoni, the most famous German recut of Giambattista Bodoni’s neo-classical roman.

Though this typographic scheme was kept for the UK paperback edition (see below, left), it was dropped when the book was picked up by Knopf in the US, and replaced by Futura (below, right, design by Ross Stevens).

Penguin:

In celebration of Penguin's 80th birthday, this box set of the 80 books in the Little Black Classics series showcases the many wonderful and varied writers in Penguin Black Classics. From India to Greece, Denmark to Iran, and not forgetting Britain, this assortment of books will transport readers back in time to the furthest corners of the globe. With a choice of fiction, poetry, essays and maxims, by the likes of Chekhov, Balzac, Ovid, Austen, Sappho and Dante, it won't be difficult to find a book to suit your mood. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of the Penguin Classics list - from drama to poetry, from fiction to history, with books taken from around the world and across numerous centuries.

The covers all feature the same design template, three band with only type in classic Penguin fashion. Futura and Mrs Eaves are put to great effect, getting some help from Monotype’s or URW's version of Baskerville for some lager than life applications in the box set packing. The design would later be re-tooled for the Pocket Penguin series.

1st run box set.

1st run box set.

The yet-to-be-released Chiswick Sans High Italic by Paul Barnes (Commercial Type) is used prominently by David Pearson in a cover design for Penguin Classics, with art direction by Jim Stoddart. The book will be published later this month.

Assorted books.

Book covers for Penguin's Mini Modern Classics series, designed by Jim Stoddart, Art Director of Penguin Press UK.

“In 2011, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Modern Classics, Penguin is publishing fifty Mini Modern Classics: the very best short fiction by writers ranging from Beckett to Conrad, Nabokov to Saki, Updike to Wodehouse. Though they don’t take long to read, they’ll stay with you long after you turn the final page.” — Belgrade Bookshop

More info from The Telegraph.

Box set.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag.

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.