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If you've had a look at my website, you've seen a range of my greeting card designs and perhaps got a sense of the extent of my wholesale business. My cards are carried by several independent bookstores around the country, and I would guess that cards inspired by iconic (I use that cliché'd descriptor advisedly) book design would be quite popular with those customers in particular.
A few years ago [!] I independently had the inspiration of designing a series of birthday cards inspired by and in homage to the classic Penguin paperbacks of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s—that is, imitating the precise design of the original iteration of the imprint. This website has a granular archive of every title published since the first, in 1935; a review of the cover designs starting with #1 reveals that by 1960, the design of every cover, in every color-coded category, had evolved and no longer hewed to the three-banded, color-coded original format I'd like to appropriate.
I spent a lot of time, back then, looking around the web for examples of other non-corporate (Penguin Random House, a division of Bertelsmann) examples of homage/parody/spoof items, of whatever species, to try to ascertain whether my idea had legitimacy and fell within the bounds of fair use. Dismayingly (because I really had hit on the concept without having seen other examples, and didn't want the competition), but also somewhat encouragingly (these parodies were out there in the free market), I found countless examples of Penguin's basic design being appropriated—see links just below—but have wanted to know without doubt (or fear of receiving a cease and desist letter), before spending money on printing and marketing, whether I will be crossing a line with my concept. I have a friend who was an editor at Viking (part of Penguin Random House), who did me the favor of taking my prototype mockups (below) to the legal department at the NY HQ and asked if I was within whatever fair-use guidelines Penguin adhered to. Apparently, they said they couldn't answer the question and said I would have to consult with Penguin UK. That's the point at which my conceptual work ground to a halt—I needed to work on other stuff and run my business. But I'm not quite ready to let it go. I have difficulty believing that, even if Penguin were ever to become aware of my cards (unlikely!), they would deem them to be anything other than fond, admiring, and droll homage to their classic covers, and even to be a net positive. But I also recognize that The Law™ and copyright protection are not the same thing as "it's harmless." (We all know about Disney's litigiousness.)
Some other Penguin-inspired items, offered for sale or otherwise out in the world:
• Etsy offers lots of customizable stuff which uses the Penguin logo and classic design.
• And mugs.
• Other greeting cards are available on print-on-demand/fulfillment sites like RedBubble. Some are straight-up covers of original titles, like this one.
• This thing exists.
• A Buzzfeed article.
• Miscellanea.
* * *
• The shoe is on the other foot!
Here are three mockups of prototype designs in my proposed series [center white line = fold]; I made these about three years ago and they are incomplete (e.g., it was/is my intention to write descriptive text for the backs, précis of the "books'" contents, à la a vintage Penguin's back cover). I endeavored to make them immaculate imitations of the classic originals, with my own (obviously) altered and written-by-me text.
To be honest, I'm not optimistic, but I'll leave this here for now and send you the link. I could go on!, but we will meet tomorrow. —Anne
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