“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.