Penguin - Book designers

Most famously for Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is designer Neil Fujita. He believes that the author of the book should be as big as the title design because it is the author that sells the book. This opens up a possibility to base the cover design on Truman Capote's reputation. The choice of colour as well is important as it relates to the themes in the book. For example the original shade of red Fujita used was told by Capote to be darken as the murder wasn't discovered for a period of time, hence a darkening of the blood.
Fujita's experience in designing album covers could also be used as inspiration to appeal to judge Jim Stoddart.

Looking at Nathan Burton's work, what makes an effective book cover is the use of a limited but vibrant colour palette, expressive typography and a central illustration to draw the readers attention. The playful colours and expressive typefaces make his designs more attractive to the younger demographic. The use of a limited colour palette focuses the art direction which is much like the approach Steve Simpson uses  explained at OFFSET Sheffield. In relation to In Cold Blood, the book itself deals with mature themes that will not immediately appeal to a younger demographic. However creating a youthful cover for In Cold Blood could be a possibility to get this audience exposed to Truman Capote.

LaBoca's design for Penguin's latest series of Sci-Fi reissues. The entire art direction of the covers are specifically aimed at their target audience. The bold spectrum of colours, the depiction of space and future technologies are all aspects of which Sci-Fi fans look for the genre. Not only that but this theme is extended through their creation of digitally animated book covers. This will be equvalavent to the radical ideas that happened throughout Penguins history, e.g. John Hamilton's removal of the orange spine. Furthermore each design works with one another to create a visual series, inspiring the idea to create a design template for a possible Truman Capote series of books. 

Another radical design cover was Penguins approach to a series of reissues of Richard Dawkins’ work. They use of coding to design the cover is a medium completely unrelated to book design. Yet it is because of its context is why these designs are appropriate to Richard Dawkins. A website created to allow reader to create their own "species" as seen on the front cover appeals to the marketing of the book, the longevity of the books topic and the engagement with the reader. Similarly with La Boca, this design incorporates both digital and print platforms, which can be seen as a future direction for book design. 

Whilst looking through an article on http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/11/09/art-exhibitions-november/, Coralie Bickford-Smith's stood out from the list. Looking further into her work and surprisingly she had designed a wide range of covers for Penguin books. She is known through here vibrant illustrative style that has led her to become the Senior cover Designer for Penguin books.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/find-your-next-read/reading-lists/2015/dec/clothbound-classics/

By using a limited colour palette and a similar pattern across every cover, the relation of the illustration to the story's narrative becomes paramount to the cover design. 

In one such example her reasoning's are evidently simple yet effective. Following the same principles of just using patterns on the front cover, they represent “the elegance and glamour of the Art Deco period [and a] sense of ornate detail fused with the modernist aesthetic of mechanical repetition.” The patterns are a nod to the Jazz age where the story is set.