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5 unusual facts about Germano Facetti


Germano Facetti

Germano Facetti (5 May 1926 – 8 April 2006) was an Italian graphic designer who headed design at Penguin Books from 1962 to 1971.

It was his interior for the Poetry Bookshop in Soho that inspired the director of Penguin, Allen Lane, to invite him to join the as art director in 1960.

Facetti was instrumental in redesigning the Penguin line, introducing phototypesetting, the 'Marber grid', offset-litho printing and photography to their paperback covers.

Romek Marber

In 1961, impressed by Marber’s covers for The Economist, Germano Facetti commissioned Marber to design covers for Simeon Potter's Our Language and Language in the Modern World.

Tony Godwin

With this aim in mind, he hired Germano Facetti in January 1961, who replaced the original Penguin cover design system with the grid layout.



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