What Dragonball, Naruto and more might look like as Penguin Classics.
What classic Japanese comic Dragonball might look like as a Penguin publication
Japanese manga and Penguin Books are two of UK designer Richard Gray's favourite things to read. So in this fun design project he imagines how his favourite titles from the former would be presented by the latter.
"I've always been fascinated by Penguin Books' use of minimalist flat design and clean typography to convey elements of a narrative in a visually concise manner," he explains. "In translating classic manga to the Penguin style, I aimed to use bold illustrations and suitable colours to suggest factors of the story, be it a particular character or story element.
"The 'Classic Manga Series' artwork was created predominantly in Illustrator CS6, before being imported into Photoshop CS6 to create the book mockup designs," he adds.
With the controversial publication of Smiths frontman Morrisey's recent autobiography as a 'Penguin Classic', it seems the well-known publisher is increasingly willing to be flexible with its imprints. So maybe a Manga imprint isn't as off the wall as it sounds. How about it, Penguin?
Has Gray done Death Note, Full Metal Alchemist et al justice? Share your views in the comments...
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Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.
