Photo © Nigel Parry
Born in Manchester in 1955, Peter Saville graduated from Manchester Polytechnic in 1978. He entered the music scene after meeting Tony Wilson and co-founded Factory. Known first as the designer of the Factory label, he was a pioneer in his way to conceive sleeves as works of art, which can easily be verified in his work for Joy Division, New Order, but also other Factory bands (OMD...) and later other artists (Peter Gabriel, Roxy Music, etc.).
He would use photographs (by Bernard Pierre Wolff, as well as fellow workers like the late Trevor Key), drawings, paintings (by Fantin-Latour, de Chirico etc.), sculptures or pure graphic elements. For Joy Division's original albums, he worked with Chris Mathan & Martyn Atkins.
When CDs replaced LPs, the reduced size of covers created some kind of frustration and Peter began working in other areas too : fashion (with Yohji Yamamoto, Christian Dior, Givenchy ...), multimedia, posters and painting. In the visual arts, he worked for the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Natural History Museum, the Barbican Centre, the London Design Museum, etc. He founded PSA (Peter Saville Associates).
Waste Painting #2
He is now one of the most influential designers in activity, and the London Design Museum has organized an exhibition in the summer of 2003 called "The Peter Saville Show", which gives the opportunity to appreciate his talent in his various activities and his evolution from the late 70s. In 2004 he was appointed creative director to the city of Manchester.
