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I got a lovely book last week called Penguin by Design, which traces the evolution of the publishing house's famous book covers from 1935-2005. Reading about the launch of the company in 1935 was fascinating.

Penguin invented the paperback book category in the UK , and helped democratise reading good quality books by bringing them to market at a much more accessible price. Here are some of the many lessons from what they did:

1. Be bold and use impactful design to stand out: the simple, bold design with three coloured panels created real impact and stand-out. At the time, book covers were highly decorative and busy, so the Penguin design was really disruptive

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2. Use clear brand architecture to help navigation: the upper and lower stripes in the cover were colour coded to help navigation: orange for fiction, green for crime and dar blue for biography. Simple, but highly effective, helping shoppers find the right book, whilst preserving a strong brand identity

3. Seek out new distribution channels: to get the level of sales needed, founder Allen Lane looked to expand distribution beyond the traditional bookshops, selling in places like train stations.

4. Prototype your ideas: the idea of a low priced, paperback book met with some resitance at first and selling the concept to retailers was hard. To help bring the idea to life, Lane had a dummy book made and this helped get the listings they needed

5. Tap your team's creativity: the brand name Penguin, now a true classic, came from a secretary, Joan Coles, after various more "official" options had been rejected. And the logo of the penguin was drawn by an office junior called Edward Young, after a trip to London Zoo. Who needs an expensive brand idenity agency!

6. Refresh your brand: 70 years after the brand was launched, the Penguin brand is still going strong. And the original design has stood the test of time, as the range of books below shows.

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The Penguin story is another example that shows how much can be learnt from looking back; "brand archeology" if you like. The trick is to take what made you famous, and keep it fresh and relevant for today.