A few months ago, The Drum magazine asked me to pick a great British design classic. Where do you begin? Poster designs, packaging, products, architecture…the choice is huge. In addition, I didn’t want to pick anything too obvious – like a Dyson vacuum, or even something more current like Heatherwick Studio’s design for the UK Pavilion at the Shanghai expo in 2010 (which is fantastic).

I eventually settled on the original Penguin Classics/books, because for me they satisfy two areas. Firstly, the aesthetic – but then the clincher, they also create an emotional connection that goes beyond the rational and can be quite personal to the individual. For me, this is the bit that goes the extra mile and creates something people fall in love with.

Penguin paperbacks were originally born in 1934, created by publisher Allen Lane. At the time, if you wanted a good book you either needed to earn a lot of money or have a library card. There were paperbacks available, but they were really poor quality. After visiting Agatha Christie in Devon then trying and failing to purchase a novel in a train station (they only had magazines and reprints of Victorian novels), Lane’s idea was born.

The design was to fall under the artistic direction of Swiss typographer Jan Tschichold (who was based in London at the time) and was colour-coded into genres. It’s a simple design that has endured the years and become an iconic symbol of popular culture. The titles have reflected changes in our attitudes through the years, but the original design has stood fast, and only in recent years has it become a canvas for the talents of new designers.

More recently, we have seen the vintage editions used on mugs, posters and notebooks etc, proving the nation’s love for this iconic symbol and its appeal beyond the original paperbacks.

All this raises a bigger question for the future of book design. Given the use of e-readers such as the Kindle, the opportunities for cover designs are becoming more fluid. The trend for personalisation is particularly interesting, as people can already personalise their own covers. It will be interesting to see where this goes in the future, as people seek a more personal experience from their bedtime reading.