How Penguin Random House set its penguin logo free

The company just introduced a series of playful, hand-drawn illustrations that bring its iconic penguin to life.

[Image: courtesy Penguin Random House]

Any avid reader undoubtedly recognizes him: the sleek, inquisitive bird frozen inside an orange oval that’s become Penguin Random House’s distinctive logo. With its new brand refresh, Penguin Random House UK is setting that iconic penguin free.

The brand just unveiled a delightful series of hand-drawn illustrations, named the “Playful Penguins,” which show the penguin jumping, strutting, dancing, and doing a whole lot of reading. The illustrations will show up everywhere across the Penguin Random House’s global markets, from seasonal campaigns to social initiatives and point-of-sale displays—and they’re designed to bring some added joy and movement to the brand as it approaches its centennial.

In the years following Random House and Penguin Books’ 2013 merger, the massive publishing house has focused on streamlining representations of the penguin to one core logo—the bird inside its lozenge—in order to maintain a consistent masterbrand. 

According to Derek Man, Penguin Random House UK’s design director, the company had an opportunity to “test and stretch” its brand for its 90th anniversary last year. At the time, his team uncovered a “rich collection of expressive illustrated penguins from our Bristol archive,” which they wove through the anniversary campaign. The public showed a major affinity for the bird, demonstrating to Man’s team that it was time to give the penguin an even bigger role in the brand.

While, crucially, the iconic penguin inside his lozenge will remain the company’s core mark, Man says the Playful Penguins will help “answer the brand’s needs in 2026 and beyond” by setting clear guidelines for other ways that the penguin is permitted to trot, slide, and dance across the page.

How the Penguin Random House bird became an icon

The origins of the Penguin Books penguin is something of a brand legend. It traces back to 1935, when Allen Lane, the founder of the publishing house, apparently received a piece of advice from his secretary that “Penguin” would be a good name to encapsulate a “dignified” yet “flippant” brand attitude. 

Soon after, Lane sent the 21-year-old illustrator Edward Young to the London Zoo, where, according to the oft-repeated tale, he apparently spent all day sketching penguins in action. His initial drawings are loose and playful, capturing a mischievous energy that suggests a creature constantly in motion. One of the first teaser ads for Penguin Books shows a series of six penguins scampering down a white page, accompanied by the text, “The penguins are coming. If you want to know what this is all about, turn over quickly to the next page.”

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