On 28 October 2000, the FT announced its 50 best all-time logos, judged by an international panel which included Sir Terence Conran, architect Lord Foster and Wallpaper* editor Tyler Brule. The Penguin logo, which has helped to make Penguin the best-known brand in publishing, was voted number 8:

8 PENGUIN BOOKS/Designer: Jan Tscichold/Date: 1949/Country: UK

'Having decided to publish cheap editions of fiction, Allen Lane asked his secretary to tihnk of a "dignified, but flippant" name, and she suggested Penguin. An office junior, Edward Young, was sent to sketch the penguins at London Zoo. When the first paperbacks came out in 1935, Young's sketches were on the covers. After World War II, Lane hired German typographer Jan Tscichold as art director with a brief to define a new design style. Vittorio Radice of Selfridges says the penguin motif is synonymous with "consistency and expertise".'