Designer birds: Penguin

Penguin of Arabia by Ursula Vernon...

Penguins are beautiful. Although they are birds, they fly through water like fish. In our human imaginations they are slick, smart and intrepid. They are humorous, they are cute. But they are also edgy and can play sinister when required. Their sleek outline makes for excellent logos (think books and biscuits). In short, they are iconic.

They are edgy…

Very Borg - Steampunk penguin by Tomasz...

I owe a debt of gratitude to penguins, too, as they are responsible for many of the hits I receive on my blog – purely because search engines find this picture of wonderful emperor penguins I used in a blog post on English words from Celtic roots – penguin comes from either Welsh or Breton, meaning “head-white” (pen-gwyn)…

Cute but real - emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) - tallest and heaviest of the penguins and living in Antarctica...

So here is a picture tribute to these iconic birds. As usual, click on the images to go to the source.

Penguins are cute…

Cute penguin in Happy Feet...

Cute penguin Winter Wonderland design by Cathy Martin

Another cute concoction - penguin griffin by Susan Hawkins on DeviantArt

Cute but unconventional - And Tango Makes Three told the (true) story of a pair of male penguins who raised an egg in New York's Central Park Zoo...

Penguins are also books…

Penguin Books - the exact shade of orange is as important as the logo...

Penguin books were the brainchild of Bodley Head director Allen Lane, who launched the first range of quality paperbacks in 1935. I would think most people in the UK have shelves full of the orange-spined books. Originally the crime titles were green and I also have many black-clad examples of Penguin “classics”.

Then there are the turquoise “Pelicans” – non-fiction by the same company – and of course the children’s “Puffin” range.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Penguin Books Amy Fleisher revamped their most popular Classic book covers to be more “Penguin-centric.”

Penguins are also chocolate biscuits…

A Penguin biscuit advert from 1957, when it was branded as made by MacDonalds

During the 1960s the slogan was “P-p-p-pick up a Penguin!”, which may not have gone down well with the politically correct these days, in terms of its light-hearted take on stammering – although The King’s Speech film might make it topical again…

The Penguin biscuit was originally made in 1932 by William MacDonald, a manufacturer in Glasgow, but this joined with McVitie’s and Price, MacFarlane Lang & Co and Crawford to form United Biscuits in 1946. Since then it has been McVitie’s branded.

In Australia a similar biscuit is called a Tim Tam…

Penguin chocolate biscuits today...

And The Penguin is also a Batman villain…

The Penguin - a Batman villain portrayed by Burgess Meredith in the 1960s TV version and by Danny DeVito in the movie Batman Returns (1992)...

There are other penguin logos…

This penguin logo is for a brand of scanline rendering software...

An old Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team logo from 2000-2001...

Penguins with guns by Braga

And here are some more penguin designs…

Penguin tattoo design by DoomofAstarael on DeviantArt

Penguins made of words by Lane Kinkade...

Ninja penguin by ChibiXai on DeviantArt

Penguin in a suit by Jamie Flack...

Will they ever find accessories to match their tuxedos? A spoof motivational poster by kiwikittyofmahem...

In its element - penguin under water by Hiroyuki Setogawa...

Penguins are never far away from the news…

Rockhopper penguins covered in oil - 4,000 were saved by the islanders of Tristan da Cunha recently when the MV Oliva ran aground - click on the picture to go to the story...

Finally, thanks to Esther Montgomery for pointing out Surf’s Up – a 2007 animated film about a surfing rockhopper penguin called Cody Maverick.

Looks more like a macaroni penguin to me, but definitely a member of the genus Eudyptes, the crested penguins. The Latin (Greek) name means “good diver”…

A poster for the 2007 film Surf's Up - the star is rockhopper penguin Cody Maverick, front right...

If you liked these penguin pictures, you may also appreciate my post on Designer birds: Peacock…