penguin series

This is a fantastic Book series from Penguin; GREAT LOVES. Beautiful serene illustrations and extremely sober typography. This are some small samples. I came  across the whole series in the bookstore (uncoated paper covers, just the right weight). A lot of the covers are illustrated by Victoria Sawdon (site is inactive) whose work I realy like. The series has a flower/plant theme and all illustrations are botanical metaphors for the stories inside. The authors, subjects and styles are diverse and eclectic; kierkegaard, Turgenevd, Sagan, Updike, Boccaccio, Nin. I found this link on the NY Times books blog where David Pearson (who made one of the most beautiful covers) explains part of the design process. Pearson (link to his site) is a designer over at Penguin Press and one of the most talented book designers and illustrators workin today. The whole illustration is done with rubber stamps (which seems to me to be a complicated way to add texture and tactility, although I appreciate the crafty gesture and it makes for great original artwork). <br>There's an interview with Pearson here, in which he talks about his influences and about the other elaborate and fantastic series he did for Penguin: Great Ideas, which has a much more typographical appraoch. His work is stunning. <br />Penguin has alway had a stable of the best designers and illustrators, and they keep up this tradition. I love their bold, clean and imaginitive approach.
Besides Great Loves and Great Ideas there's also a Great Journeys series. Again an illustrative series with very limited and distinct color pallettes which tie the whole series together.
There is one thumbs down for penguin; I found out, looking for this series over at Penguin's that they don't credit their cover designers in the info sections that go with the books. So I hope it's is okay for me to do this for them and praise them with this post.