anyone who knows me knows how much of a nutter i am about factory records. the independent label from manchester who brought us such great bands as joy division, new order, happy mondays, a certain ratio, and the durutti column. while factory defined the sound of post-punk england, one of its founder and resident in-house designer peter saville inadvertently helped define the future of graphic design. his cover for joy division's debut album unknown pleasures depicting a diagram of a collapsing star has become one of the most iconic images in popular culture. and his groundbreaking sleeve for the highest selling single of all time, blue monday by new order, actually lost money every time a record was sold because its complicated floppy disc shaped cover was so expensive to produce. his work quite literally helped create the visual language of contemporary pop music. now that every tom, dick and harry have taken to pirating music off the world wide web instead of going to record shops, its quite sad to realize that the art of album covers that managed to extend its life through cds feels to be on its final ebb.
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