OUGD404 - Studio Brief 02 - Romek Marber

Romek Marber is a freelance designer, born in Poland in 1925, but moved to Britain in 1946 after World War II. Marber had previously designed covers for The Economist, however is now best known for his 1961 grid layout for Penguin Classic book covers, specifically Penguin crimes, which have been described as 'a landmark of independent British design'.

Penguin art director (1960 - 1972), Germano Facetti, was particularly impressed by Marber's work for The Economist and so commissioned him to design the covers of Simeon Potter's 'Our Language' and 'Language in the Modern World', before later proposing a new approach for the Penguin Crime Series of books, which saw him design twenty titles in four months.
Marber's designs made use of a grid system, which he specifically created for use in the design of Penguin crime, as well as a 'fresher' shade of green based on the existing colour scheme for the series.