Germano Facetti

Germano Facetti was an Italian graphic designer who headed design at Penguin Books from 1962 to 1971. As well as his many achievements in design, he appeared in Chris Marker’s famous short film La Jetée (1962).

Born in Milan he was arrested in 1943 for putting up anti-Fascist posters and deported to Mauthausen as a forced labourer. He moved to London in the early 1950s where he took evening classes in typography at the Central School of Art & Design. During this time he also designed the Poetry Bookshop in Soho and a stage set for Lindsay Anderson at the Royal Court, and took part in the This is Tomorrow exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1956. At Penguin, which he joined in 1960, Facetti was instrumental in redesigning the Penguin line, in particular Penguin Classics, introducing phototypesetting, the ‘Marber grid’, offset-litho printing and photography to their paperback covers.

He returned to Italy in the 1970s, where he eventually retired. He died in 2006.