The legendary artistic visionary and Factory co-founder Peter Saville was born on this day in 1955. Saville created iconic artwork for seminal Joy Division and New Order record sleeves. His beloved artwork is integral and cannot be separated from the recorded works; the music wouldn't be nearly as timeless, meaningful, or enjoyable without his brilliant flair and elegance.
Peter Saville on creating Joy Division & New Order's artwork (taken from the film New Order: Decades, by Mike Christie 2018):
"There was a fundamentally different relationship between myself and Joy Division to that which then kind of evolved over the next decade with New Order. There was a personality to Joy Division, which I could only complement, have a kind of dialogue with that personality."
"The absence of Ian -- let's be straight about it -- the absence of Ian leaves a space around the group. The visual works steps into that space. So the covers are not about the music. Nobody wants to talk about the music. Nobody wants to say what any of it's about. No one is necessarily that sure what any of it's about."
"The covers are conceived of independently, based on my own kind of tracking of a zeitgeist through that period. There isn't a singular language they're a journey through the cannon of 20th century art and design, which was my own journey."
They (New Order/Factory) never said they liked them. I remember calling Rob (Gretton) once about "Blue Monday," and I said, "does anyone like it?" And he said, "they don't mind it much." And in fact there was not a collective "we like this" until the cover of Regret. Bernard said, "you're getting the hang of it."
Read Peter Saville's insightful commentary on his creations in an excellent feature published by The Guardian in 2011.
Happy Birthday to the legend and icon that is Peter Saville!
Published October 9th, 2018
