Penguin Posters Pay Tribute to Well-Thumbed Reads

Penguin Classics has launched ‘Happy Reading’, a nationwide poster campaign celebrating the individual relationships between readers and the books that they have loved. Each of these still-life portraits demonstrates the enduring power of the books that make up this iconic series. 

Created by brand director Sam Voulters and designer Tom Etherington, the campaign consists of a series of posters featuring the most evidently well-loved books. Every copy is creased, bent, torn and dog eared, with scribbled notes in the margins or parcel tape barely holding the pages together. One doesn’t even have a cover anymore.

Adding to an already visually-arresting idea, all the books featured were borrowed by Penguin from authors, artists, scientists, musicians and Classics lovers worldwide, from Ali Smith to Kate Tempest. But it is most definitely the books themselves that are the stars of the campaign.

The idea was to capture the experience that every reader knows of falling in love with a book and the photographs showcase the evidence of these relationships. 

It’s an approach in line with the trend for tangible experiences that has seen the market for physical books grow over the last five years.