The very interesting Things Magazine website features an amazing gallery of vintage Pelican Book covers from the 1930s to 1980s. According to the Penguin website the Pelican imprint was launched in 1937 to “cover serious contemporary issues and represented the first new and original books to be published by Penguin… The series was weighted towards History, Sociology, Economics and Politics and continued the ‘good books cheap’ philosophy of Penguin.”

The extensive gallery is an amazing historical and aesthetic archive. The 1960s collection is particularly revealing of the revolutionary nature (both technological and cultural) of the times.

Also worth checking out is David Pearson Design‘s recent work for Penguin, especially the Great Ideas series (direct links here, here, and here) . Mmmm… debossed type on uncoated paper stock. Beautiful…