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penguin phrasebooks in french, german, italian and spanish
pentagram's angus hyland and his team turned to cultural cliches
for the new covers of penguin’s republished 1968 edition phrasebooks.
cheese, croissants, and the eiffel tower for the french version;
salami, vespas and leaning towers for the italian.
traditionally, phrasebooks have been treated as a technical and dry resource,
but hyland created a playful design by repeating a series of stereotypical
images from each country. the iconic penguin was seconded to project
each title via a speech bubble.
'people still love carrying around physical phrasebooks and by using
these cultural icons, we’ve added a bit of ironic charm and character'.
- angus hyland
german, spanish, italian and french are available now, with mandarin
and japanese to be published in may.
designboom rating:
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project team
angus hyland; partner-in-charge and designer; zara moore, designer.
Typical Spanish.OLÉ!. – OLÉ!.
It misses a Mexican hat.
Above all, to finish fixing it.
As if all Spanish, we liked the bulls and we were dressed for the street.
What a pity, What a pity …
what about the inside: layout, fonts, format?
Inspired by Tesco’s ‘everyday value’ range no less!
There’s a fine line between culture and cliche. I have actually packed croissants, cheese, wine, champagne, and gotten on a bike in Paris to pedal to the Eiffel Tower!
It says these are available now? I can’t find them anywhere.
@Sheron: how funny. I also packed my accordeon, my dachshund dog, some pretzels and beer and the Brandenburg gate in my beetle to go to the Neuschwanstein casttle.