Malcolm Garrett chooses his favourite work by Peter Saville
Studied graphic design at Manchester Polytechnic, contemporary with Saville; founder of Assorted Images (1977); worked with the Buzzcocks and Duran Duran pioneering the idea of music branding; founder of AMX (in 1994), one of London's first interactive design agencies
Power, Corruption and Lies
I find it almost impossible to select just one piece of work from a man who has impressed, informed, inspired, and above all challenged me for more than four decades. Having been a friend for that entire time it is not over-emphasis to say that Peter and his singular approach to every aspect of design have been an enduring intellectual stimulus, and a constant by which I have judged my own achievements.
Here and main picture: the front and back covers of Power, Corruption and Lies, New Order, Factory Records, 1983, designed by Peter Saville Associates
After passing over any number of brilliant but more obscure works, I nominate his sleeve for New Order's Power Corruption and Lies as arguably the pinnacle of his career as a music industry designer. The late Tony Wilson, Peter's partner at Factory Records, was fond of declaring: 'When given the option of the truth or the myth, always choose the myth'. And so itis the mythology that surrounds this record, and its precursor the 12in single Blue Monday, which gives it such presence. It has an enigmatic potency that rises above the beauty, simplicity and symbolism of the Fantin-Latour painting and colour-coded shapes that hold its typographic key.
This sleeve has come to represent one of those few moments where a musical recording, its cultural environment and the visual totem that adorns it meld seamlessly. In that regard it has many parallels with the Hipgnosis/George Hardie sleeve for Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, which defines and transcends a musical era that had reached a peak. The comparisons between New Order and those darlings of the English psychedelic era don't end there. Suffice to say, this record sleeve is one of a select few that is a cultural milestone and as such stands well apart from its peers.
