that colour that belongs to the chair
“When I look at a chair, I say I experience it. But what I actually experience is only a very few of the elements that go to make up the chair, namely, that colour that belongs to the chair under these particular conditions of light, the shape which the chair displays when viewed from this angle, etc. The man who has the experience, as distinct from a philosopher theorizing about it would probably say that he experienced the chair most fully not when looking at it but when meaning to sit down in it precisely because his experience is not limited to colour under specific conditions of light, and angular shape.”
—John Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal System, from Experience and Nature, 1925. Quoted in Experiential Learning: A Best Practice Handbook for Educators and Trainers by Colin Beard and John P. Wilson, second edition, 2006.
A Blue Chamber
“Although Mr. Gradgrind did not take after Blue Beard, his room was quite a blue chamber in its abundance of blue books.”
—Charles Dickens, from Hard Times, 1854.
blue book.
Blue-bound statistical reports issued by the government.
—a footnote to the 1993 Norton Anthology Edition of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, originally published in 1854.
a town of red brick
“It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage.”
—Charles Dickens, describing Coketown in Hard Times, 1854.
white satin and jewels
“‘You were coming out of the Italian Opera, ma’am, in white satin and jewels, a blaze of splendour, when I hadn’t a penny to buy a link to light you.’”
—Charles Dickens, from Hard Times, 1854.
link.
A flaming torch used to light up the street for pedestrians.
—a footnote to the 1993 Norton Anthology Edition of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, originally published in 1854.
Fairy palaces
“The lights in the great factories, which looked, when they were illuminated, like Fairy palaces—or the travellers by express-train said so—were all extinguished; and the bells had rung for knocking off for the night, and had ceased again; and the Hands, men and women, boy and girl, were clattering home.”
—Charles Dickens, from Hard Times, 1854.
Silver thread and golden needles
“Silver thread and golden needles
Cannot mend this heart of mine
And I dare not drown my sorrows
In the warm glow of your wine”
—from Silver Threads And Golden Needles, written by Dick Reynolds & Jack Rhodes.
orange for fiction
“The first Penguin titles appeared at a time when the various roles of designer, art director and printer were not clearly differentiated. The basic horizontal tripartite division of the covers, as well as the penguin itself, were devised by Edward Young, who became the company’s first Production Manager. The colours used to indicate subject matter—initially just orange for fiction, green for crime, dark blue for biography, cerise for travel & adventure, red for plays—were an aspect of the design which far outlasted the original layout.”
—Phil Baines, from Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005, 2005.
the Penguin name
“With the resonance that the Penguin name rapidly acquired, it is possible to believe that the word itself was a significant element in the success. It was apparently suggested by a secretary—Joan Coles–after various alternatives had been rejected, and Edward Young, then a 21-year-old office junior, was sent to the London Zoo to make sketches. He came back with the first version of the logo and the comment, ‘My God, how those birds stink!’ The design of the books—also by Young—was simple but striking, and a reaction to the decoration or illustrative whimsy found on many other books: three horizontal stripes, the upper and lower of which were colour-coded–orange for fiction, green for crime, dark blue for biography—and a central white panel containing author and title printed black in Eric Gill’s sans serif type. In the upper coloured panel was a cartouche . . . with the legend PENGUIN BOOKS, and in the lower panel the logo appeared. Although manufactured as paperbacks with printed covers, they came with printed dustjackets like a conventional hardback.”
—Phil Baines, from Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005, 2005.