Better Things

Penguin are turning 75 this year, and their iconic orange spines and minimal covers have got Douglas Coupland and Penguin Canada thinking. Penguin covers, says Coupland, act as a time stamp. Taking a look at a cover design can take you back to a time and a place – they’re a bit of a Proust’s Madeleine triggering involuntary memory in and of themselves.

So what better way to celebrate this than to reverse the process and imagine what we would say to the people of 1935 through the medium of the Penguin cover? On their microsite, speaking to the past we get the opportunity to do just that.

It’s a lovely idea and helps to bolster Penguins already iconic brand status, whilst generating content and interaction and (and here’s the really good bit) letting us, the consumer, have a bit of fun.

Nice work Penguin – and happy birthday!

Thanks to mcmrbt for the cover images.