Peter Saville | |
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 Peter Saville at I realize 2009, Turin | |
| Born | 9 October 1955 Manchester, Lancashire, England |
| Occupation(s) | Art director, graphic designer |
| Known for | Design of record and CD covers |
Peter Andrew Saville CBE (born 9 October 1955) is an English art director and graphic designer. He designed many record sleeves for Factory Records, which he co-founded in 1978 alongside Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus. [1]
Peter Saville was born in Manchester, Lancashire, [2] and attended St Ambrose College. He studied graphic design at Manchester Polytechnic from 1975 to 1978.
Saville became involved in the music scene after meeting Tony Wilson, the journalist and broadcaster. The meeting resulted in Wilson commissioning the first Factory poster (FAC 1). Saville was a partner in Factory Records along with Wilson, Martin Hannett, Rob Gretton and Alan Erasmus.
Peter Saville designed many record sleeves for Factory artists, most notably for Joy Division and New Order.
Influenced by fellow student Malcolm Garrett, who had begun designing for the Manchester punk group Buzzcocks, and by Herbert Spencer's Pioneers of Modern Typography , Saville was inspired by Jan Tschichold, chief propagandist for the New Typography. According to Saville: "Malcolm had a copy of Herbert Spencer's Pioneers of Modern Typography. The one chapter that he hadn't reinterpreted in his own work was the cool, disciplined 'New Typography' of Tschichold and its subtlety appealed to me. I found a parallel in it for the New Wave that was evolving out of Punk." [1] [3]
Saville collaborated with Ben Kelly on numerous projects during this period. Saville credited Kelly as a major influence on his work, saying "I thought I could just take things from Ben, like he was a reference book or something. He used to get really mad about it." [4] Kelly and Saville won a Designers and Art Directors Award for the sleeve of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's 1980 self-titled first album. [5]
Saville's album design for Joy Division's last album, Closer , released shortly after the suicide of Ian Curtis in May 1980, was controversial [6] in its depiction of Christ's body entombed. However, the design pre-dated Curtis's death, which the magazine New Musical Express confirmed, since it had been displaying proofs of the artwork in its offices for several months. [6]
Saville's output from this period included re-appropriation from the canon of art and design. Design critic Alice Twemlow wrote: "... in the 1980s ... he would directly and irreverently 'lift' an image from one genre—art history for example—and recontextualise it in another. A Fantin-Latour 'Roses' painting in combination with a colour-coded alphabet became the seminal album cover for New Order's Power, Corruption & Lies (1983), for example." [7]
In the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People , which is based on Tony Wilson and the history of Factory Records, Saville is portrayed by actor Enzo Cilenti. [8] His reputation for missing deadlines [9] is comically highlighted in the film.
In 1979, Saville moved from Manchester to London and became art director of the Virgin offshoot Dindisc. He subsequently created a body of work that furthered his refined take on modernism, producing work for artists such as Roxy Music, Wham!, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Ultravox and Peter Gabriel. During his time at Dindisc, he also designed the sleeve for Canadian band Martha and the Muffins’ album Metro Music . He was paid more to design Gabriel's 1986 album So than for any other record sleeve in his career; he received £20,000. [10] Saville founded the design agency Peter Saville Associates (still designing primarily for musical artists and record labels), which included Brett Wickens, before he was invited to close his office in 1990 to join the partner-owned Pentagram. Saville collaborated with Transport for Greater Manchester in 2008 for the rebranding of the Metrolink tram system with a yellow and silver polka-dot scheme after a period of significant expansion had been undertaken on the network. [11]
In 1993 Saville left London and moved to Los Angeles, to join ad agency Frankfurt Balkind with Brett Wickens. Saville soon returned to London, however, where he asked designer Howard Wakefield to restart the design studio. For three years they worked from "The Apartment" in partnership with German advertising agency Meiré & Meiré. Saville's modernist apartment in Mayfair doubled as the London studio. (The same apartment is depicted in the record sleeve of Pulp's album This Is Hardcore .) The Apartment produced works for clients such as Mandarina Duck and Smart Car. In 1999 Saville moved to offices in Clerkenwell.
Saville grew in demand as a younger generation of people in advertising and fashion had grown up with his work for Factory Records. He reached a creative and a commercial peak with design consultancy clients such as Selfridges, EMI and Pringle. Other significant commissions came from the field of fashion. Saville's fashion clients have included Jil Sander, John Galliano, Yohji Yamamoto, Christian Dior, Stella McCartney and Calvin Klein [12] Saville often worked in collaboration with longtime friend, fashion photographer Nick Knight. The two launched the art and fashion website SHOWstudio in November 2000. Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons was granted full access to the archives of Saville's vintage Factory projects and made a personal selection of Saville-designed works to integrate them into Raf Simons "Closer" Autumn/Winter 2003-04 collection. Raf Simons Spring/Summer 2018 collection also features a selection of archival works by Saville.
In 2004 Saville became Creative Director of the City of Manchester, playing a strategic role in the regeneration and cultural renaissance of his home city, notably defining the ethos for the Manchester International Festival.
In 2010 Saville designed the England football team home shirt. [13]
Saville has three D&AD awards, is a Royal Designer for Industry and won the London Design Medal in 2013.
In 2012 Saville collaborated with Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh in celebration of their centenary to create a large scale tapestry of his work After, After Monarch of the Glen. This new tapestry commission is Dovecot Studios re appropriation of Peter Saville's appropriation of Sir Peter Blake's appropriation of Sir Edwin Landseer's 1851 painting Monarch of the Glen .
In 2018, Saville redesigned the logo for British luxury fashion house Burberry, as revealed by then creative director Riccardo Tisci. [14]
In July 2019 Saville was featured in the BBC Radio 4 programme Only Artists in conversation with industrial designer Marek Reichman. [15]
Saville was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to design. [16]
Saville's reclaimed status and contribution to graphic design were firmly established when London's Design Museum exhibited his body of work in 2003. The exhibition, The Peter Saville Show, was open from 23 May through 14 September 2003. [18] A book published by Frieze, Designed by Peter Saville, accompanied the exhibition. The Peter Saville Show Soundtrack for the exhibition was performed and recorded by New Order, and was available to early visitors to the exhibition.
Anna Blessmann and Peter Saville met in a gallery in Berlin in 2001 and soon began an artwork collaboration, works have been shown at Paul Stolper Gallery London, CRAC Alsace, Migros Museum Zurich, Whitechapel London and in various publications.
In 2010 they presented 'Swing Project 1' in the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims and in 2012 'Swing Project 2' at Galerie Neu, Berlin. In 2013 they participated in the Fiorucci Art Trust 'Volcano Extravaganza', Stromboli. In 2014 they exhibited 'Swing Project 3' at the Cabinet Gallery, London.
New Order are an English rock band formed in Salford in 1980 by vocalist and guitarist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook, and drummer Stephen Morris. Their fusion of post-punk with electronic and dance music made them one of the most acclaimed and influential bands of the 1980s. The band regrouped after the disbandment of their previous band, Joy Division, following the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis. Keyboardist Gillian Gilbert joined them later that year. They became the flagship band for Manchester-based independent record label Factory Records and its nightclub, The Haçienda, and worked in long-term collaboration with graphic designer Peter Saville.
Closer is the second and final studio album by the English rock band Joy Division, released on 18 July 1980 by Factory Records. Produced by Martin Hannett, it was released two months after the suicide of the band's lead singer and lyricist Ian Curtis. The album reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and peaked at No. 3 in New Zealand in September 1981. Closer was also named NME Album of the Year. It was remastered and re-released in 2007.
Factory Records was a Manchester-based British independent record label founded in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus.
James Martin Hannett was a British record producer, musician and an original partner/director at Tony Wilson's Factory Records. Hannett produced music by artists including Joy Division, the Durutti Column, A Certain Ratio, Magazine, John Cooper Clarke, New Order, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and Happy Mondays. His distinctive production style embraced atmospheric sounds and electronics.
Power, Corruption & Lies is the second studio album by the English rock band New Order, released on 2 May 1983 by Factory Records. The album features more electronic tracks than their 1981 debut Movement, with heavier use of synthesisers. The album was met with widespread acclaim, and has been included in music industry lists of the greatest albums of the 1980s and of all time. The cover artwork was by Peter Saville, and in 2010 it was one of ten classic album covers from British artists commemorated on a UK postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail.
Unknown Pleasures is the debut studio album by the English rock band Joy Division. It was released on 15 June 1979 through Factory Records. The album was recorded and mixed over three successive weekends at Stockport's Strawberry Studios in April 1979, with producer Martin Hannett contributing a number of unconventional recording techniques to the group's sound. The cover artwork was designed by artist Peter Saville, using a data plot of signals from a radio pulsar. It is the only Joy Division album released during lead singer Ian Curtis's lifetime.
The Peter Saville Show Soundtrack is an EP released by British band New Order in 2003. It was produced to accompany a Peter Saville exhibition, The Peter Saville Show, which appeared at London's Design Museum in 2003, and from 23 January to 18 April 2004 at Urbis in Manchester.
"Ceremony" is a song written by Joy Division, and first released as New Order's debut single in 1981. The track and its B-side, "In a Lonely Place", were recorded as Joy Division prior to the death of Ian Curtis. Both were re-recorded and carried over to Joy Division's re-formation as New Order.
"Sub-culture" is the tenth single by English rock band New Order. It was released as the second and final single from their third studio album, Low-Life (1985) on 28 October 1985 by Factory Records.
Nicholas David Gordon Knight is a British fashion photographer and founder and director of SHOWstudio.com. He is an honorary professor at University of the Arts London and was awarded an honorary Ph.D. by the same university. He has produced books of his work including retrospectives Nicknight (1994) and Nick Knight (2009). In 2016, Knight's 1992 campaign photograph for fashion brand Jil Sander was sold by Phillips auction house at the record-breaking price of HKD 2,360,000.
Section 25 are an English post-punk and electronic band, best known for the 1984 single "Looking from a Hilltop", associated with Manchester record label Factory Records.
Organisation is the second studio album by English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), released on 24 October 1980 by Dindisc. On Organisation the group worked with a producer for the first time, enlisting former Gong bass player Mike Howlett, while session musician Malcolm Holmes became the band's full-time drummer. The record is noted for its dark, melancholic tone in comparison to other OMD releases.
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark is the debut studio album by English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), released on 22 February 1980 by Dindisc. Recorded at the group's Liverpool studio, it showcased their minimal synth-pop style and peaked at number 27 on the UK Albums Chart. "Electricity" and "Red Frame/White Light" were released as singles; a re-recorded version of "Messages" provided OMD with their first hit in the UK, reaching number 13.
"Electricity" is the 1979 debut single by English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), featured on their eponymous debut album the following year. Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys sing the lead vocals on the track together in unison, although Humphreys is positioned higher in the mix. Recognised as one of the most influential singles of its era, "Electricity" was integral to the rise of the UK's synth-pop movement. It has garnered praise from music journalists and other recording artists.
Shadowplayers is the title of both a 2006 documentary film and a 2010 book by James Nice of LTM Recordings, tracing the detailed history of Factory Records and the Manchester post-punk music scene between 1978 and 1981.
Martha Jane Ladly is a Canadian academic, designer and musician. She is a professor of design at OCAD University. Ladly also has had a long career as a musician and became famous internationally as part of rock band Martha and the Muffins. She had a solo career in the mid-1980s and then worked in design and education.
Dindisc was a UK record label, an imprint of Virgin Records but operating semi-independently, which issued new releases from mid-1979 through early 1982. It is no longer active, but CD reissues on Virgin still mention the label and have Dindisc catalogue numbers.
Always Now is the debut studio album by Section 25. It was released in September 1981 through iconic Manchester record label Factory with the catalogue number FACT 45. The album was produced by Martin Hannett, best known for producing both of Joy Division's studio albums. Joy Division front man Ian Curtis has been credited as co-producing the record in parts before his death in May 1980. Recording took place in February 1981 at Britannia Row Studios in Islington, London, owned by Pink Floyd.
John Trevor Key was a British photographer and designer, best known for his work for musical artists of the 1970s and 1980s. One of his best-known covers was for Mike Oldfield's 1973 debut album Tubular Bells. Other artists that he produced cover artwork for include Joy Division, the Sex Pistols, Phil Collins, Roxy Music, Wham!, Can, China Crisis, System 7, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and New Order.
Ben Kelly is a British interior designer, who owns interior design firm Ben Kelly Design. He has also won awards for graphic design.
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