Study Task 6: What do 'they' do?

The main creative field I am interested in working with currently is Publishing Design. From researching into different publishing houses and design studios who work with publishing houses to design the editorial and book covers, I have been able to find only large companies and small companies, with no real in between. A few very large publishers dominate the market, with smaller companies filling the gaps by providing either specialist or alternative material. Therefore I will be looking at a couple of large and small publishing houses/studios.

Looking at these companies, it was difficult to find any real problems with their businesses or designs as they are all incredibly successful, and the reason I chose them is because I aspire to work with any of these publishers or designers. Something that is a possible threat to all of the companies, big and small, is the digital book market, which means that the printed book market may become smaller and more competitive. Penguin and Phaidon have little to worry about in terms of competition, but the smaller publishers obviously need to promote themselves more and work harder to have commercial success, but they are creating niches for themselves which makes them more appealing and more successful as they are limiting their competition. A flaw that I have noticed in the online presence of both Phaidon and Penguin is the fact that they have so much information to communicate can make their websites seem a little disorganised and cluttered and so makes them less desirable to visit online, whereas a website like Four Corners is visually and conceptually strong and creates more of an interest in their work, which promotes them more positively.