Classic Modern: Peter Saville Design

Peter Saville was one of the founders of Factory Records, his designs were so specific that they helped define a label that could sell albums without even including a band Name or Title on their album sleeves. His work was so highly regarded that each object,album cover,flier, or banner he created was reserved it's own FACT release number. He relentless chose to create something new for every album he worked on constantly pushing the boundaries of what technology would allow at the time(Notoriously his design for the New Order-Blue Monday single(the number one selling 12" of all time) would actually cost the band for each one sold, this and the fact that he would often turn fliers/posters for events after they had already happened was humorously pointed out in the Michael Winterbottom film "24hr Party People.") Rather than sacrifice quality Saville designed each album as a stand alone as a piece of art creating a feel and imaged that related to the music within the sleeve, he abandoned prepackaged Image and Identity of already established bands choosing to find a new soul for each product a band would produce. One such album is the Durutti Column FACT14 Sandpaper Sleeve LP(designed to faceless and namelessly shred the albums unfortunate to be around it in the record stores *Poor Duran Duran) The New Order records that came out at the time of Power, Corruption and Lies were identifiable only by color barcode, with no words, that when matched to color code wheel on the back or on the inner sleeve would reveal hidden messages that would inform you the bands Name,the Album Title and FACT#. The FACTory Box Cassettes are considered by many to be the crown jewels of Savilles Factory Records output. Every band in the Factory Catalog was assigned a individual color(ACR=Black, Durutti Column=Red, Joy Division=Purple, New Order=White and so on) and given a clothbound box that was made to stand vertically on a bookshelf. All album artwork was contained inside the box as postcards leaving the outside to only state the FACT#,the band name, and title. He attempted to give music the same kind of levity usually reserved only for Classical Literature. Whether you liked the band or the album within, his designs insured that you would at least get a great piece art or a collectors item.