This is David Pelham...
He presided over Penguin book covers as their Art Director (following on from wild child Alan Aldridge) from 1968 to 1979. Not only did he commission some wonderful artists and designers but he was an exceptional talent in his own right as a designer…
The Above Kites won Pelham a D&AD Silver Award
And also as an illustrator, producing a run of immaculately airbrushed illustrations for a verity of Penguin’s science fiction covers. Here are a few of my favourites…
He left penguin in the late ‘70s after the erosion of the Penguin design aesthetic brought about by Peter Mayer, who shook the company up and in the process made it profitable but threw out its soul. Pelham worked for a short-lived spell at Pentagram Design, after which he concentrated on his own publishing projects, specialising in innovative pop-up books.
The Human Body by David Pelham and Jonathan Miller was a great pop-up book success.