Yesterday was also the Getting Into Publishing day at Penguin. It was an early start for me ... 6am! I got the train from Alton and arrived in London with plenty of time to grab a coffee! After a slight bit of confusion at the start whereby a few of us weren't on their list of attendees - they finally let us in to the talk.
Here is the plan of the day...
The manager from each department gave a ten to fifteen minute talk about their role, the work of their department and what part they play in the Penguin business.
It seems like a really good company to work for. Quite a few of the people that spoke had been there a long time, and had come into the company into a position such as Secretary, and then worked their way up and became Managers/Directors of each their department.
The talk covered everything from the Contracts and Rights department, to Production, PR, HR and even Finance. It was very much a talk on getting into publishing, however more for people who want to work for Penguin specifically and are interested in working for them as a company. I know that I have an interest in Book Design and Publishing. However, thinking about it now, I think I to focus more on Art Book Publishing, or Limited Edition Publishing - books that are really interestingly made and designed. For example Paul Austers 'Sophie Calle:Double Game'. It is beautifully made. I bought it last year, and they are now quite collectable books. Each page is really nice and at the front it has a section of another book. This is printed on different stock paper that is smaller than that of the book, and it is bound with a ribbon. Phaidon Press are world renowned for their high quality design and production. I found a brief history about them on their website...
PHAIDON - BRIEF HISTORY taken from their website
“By means of beauty, beautiful things become beautiful.”
Socrates, Plato, PHAEDO
Phaidon has a long and distinguished history as an art book publisher. The company was founded in Vienna in 1923 by Dr. Bela Horowiz and Ludwig Goldscheider and named after “Phaedo”, Socrates’ pupil who spoke on the immortality of the soul. Their key objective was to deliver quality books at affordable prices. They were able to achieve this as pioneers of the international co-edition and with large print-runs. Their first titles were not art books, but books on literature, philosophy and history. Phaidon’s large format art books first emerged in 1936 with high-quality plates on Van Gogh, Botticelli, and the French Impressionists. These were some of the first large, sumptuously illustrated artist monographs reasonably priced for the general public.
The occupation of the Nazis in Vienna forced the company to move to England. After the war, Phaidon launched an innovative program of both popular and scholarly art book publishing. This included the monumental critical catalogue of drawings in the royal collection at Windsor Castle and the elegant "pocket" series of art history texts (now known as the Arts and Letters series). In 1950, Phaidon published its landmark book The Story of Art – a one volume survey of the history of art by renowned scholar Ernst Gombrich.
The company went through a rough period in the 70s and 80s changing ownership several times, until 1990 when Richard Schlagman acquired Phaidon Press with the objective of re-establishing it as the leading publisher of books on the visual arts. Based in London, Phaidon launched an energetic program of new books and re-launched its best classic titles. The Press turned back to its original mission – to publish fine art books with high production and design standards, scholarly excellence, and value for money. The result has been breathtaking, unusually readable, desirable books on the whole spectrum of visual arts.
In 1994, The Art Book was published with over 500 images for each of the most important artists from ancient to modern day in an unconventional A-Z format. It has been and still is a huge international success. In 1995, Phaidon published the 16th edition of The Story of Art which has sold over seven million copies to date and been translated into more than 30 languages. The Story of Art is still unrivalled as the best introduction to the history of art and the most popular book on art ever published.
Today Phaidon books are recognized worldwide for the highest quality of content, design, and production. They cover everything from art, architecture, photography, design, performing arts, decorative arts, contemporary culture, fashion, film, travel, cookery and children’s books. Phaidon books continue to be so innovative and beautiful that as Nigel Spivy points out in his fuller account of Phaidon’s history, “a readership is rightly disposed to buy a Phaidon book for no other reason than that Phaidon has produced it”.
I am going to look into getting work experience at a publishers that is relevant to the type of publishing I am interested in. I think this is the next step for me to try and work out what I want to do after this course. I think all experience, good or bad, is really beneficial. Even the Penguin day, it made me consider what type of books I wanted work with.
