Julian Morey chooses his favourite work by Peter Saville
Worked at Peter Saville Associates (1989-1990); freelanced and collaborated from 1991 to 2000s, notably for London Records
True Faith
Peter's early work was embroiled in the art of 'appropriation', an eclectic mix of sleeve designs created from a tapestry of historical references. During the mid-Eighties Peter moved away from this process and asked how to be 'modern'. Together with Trevor Key -- photographer, studio neighbour and long-term collaborator -- a trade-secret process was created that they referred to as 'dichromat' photography.
Like a contemporary reinterpretation of Warhol's acid coloured silk-screen prints, this in-camera technique took natural and inanimate objects and turned them into hyper-real, vivid, dream-like images. Against a background of Yves Klein blue, a solitary gold leaf is suspended in space; the image is counterbalanced perfectly against a neoclassical arrangement of Bauer Bodoni. Like the music, the image is open to interpretation; the design however is seminal Peter Saville.
