Tom Etherington Designs the Beauty of Nature in Penguin’s New Green Ideas Series

For those who say, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover,’ clearly have not seen the cover designs of London-based designer, Tom Etherington. As the part-time designer for the storied publisher, Penguin Press, Etherington has revitalized a number of literary classics for a new generation of curious readers.

For his latest endeavor, Etherington designed 20 inviting covers for Penguin’s Green Ideas — a series of books on nature and the climate crisis. For a genre that can feel intimidating to the average reader, Etherington sought to pare back the gravity of the content, by designing a series of minimal covers that accentuate the “beauty of nature,” he told It’s Nice That. Using only a selection of earthy tones, the designer captured both the spirit of the pages with just enough ambiguity to keep the collection of designs interesting all throughout.

Each of the 20 books is a fairly quick read, with the average title running just under 100 pages. Readers can gain a thorough insight into the environmental movement — from Aldo Leopold’s 1949 essay, Think Like a Mountain to Greta Thunberg‘s No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference. Check out the full Green Ideas series on Penguin’s website.

Elsewhere in design, Frank Lloyd Wright’s The Harper House hits the market for the first time in 25 years.