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Designed by Peter Saville

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For those not reading the front page.

Peter Saville is perhaps the most influential graphic designer of his generation. Best-known for his seminal record covers for Joy Division and New Order, Saville has also art directed catalogues and advertisements for fashion brands such as Yohji Yamamoto and Dior, and created corporate identities for Givenchy, Mandarina Duck and London's Whitechapel gallery. More recently he has designed CDs for Pulp and Suede, and art directed the print campaign for Stella McCartney.

'Designed by Peter Saville' is the first book of his work. Comprising design for music, fashion, advertising and art, it chronicles his design from 1978 to the present. The book includes a comprehensive interview by Christopher Wilson as well as essays by style writer Peter York, music critics Paul Morley and Miranda Sawyer, and design critics Rick Poynor, Emily King, and Peter Hall.

Saville was recently voted both 'most admired individual working in the creative industries' and 'best graphic designer' in a peer pool conducted by Creative Review. The intensity and apparent timelessness of his work has ensured his cult status for 25 years.

Quotations from the book:

The selection of images shown in this book are the greatest hits of a career that is composed of almost nothing but. While the Joy Division and New Order album sleeves are the best-known of his early work, these are fleshed out by an improbably large proportion of that era's memorable record sleeves. For anyone born in the mid- to late-sixties, looking through the work is an unerringly nostalgic experience.

  • Emily King

There's a certain sadness in what Saville does that gives gravitas. He removes things to try and discover what its core values are, and he does that in a very beautiful way. Although he is the best as what he does, he doesn't think that's enough. -Nick Knight

Like the proverbial tropical butterfly that flaps its wings, setting off a tornado in another part of the world, Saville's period of intense activity for Yohji Yamamoto brought about a mini tempest in the world of fashion communication. It introduced a much-aped photographic lexicon and acquainted the fashion world with the benefits of a refined level of graphic design.

  • Peter Hall

Peter Saville, for a time, was a genius, which is not to say he isn't one now, just that you only really notice that he was a genius because of the way his twenty year-old work does not look twenty years old, but somehow a hundred years old and/or a day old and yet something out of now or of tomorrow.

  • Paul Morley

Saville's method, then as now, lies in fixing on a style or look slightly ahead of popular taste. He achieves the sort of ambiguity and complexity of resonance more usually ssociated with art. His idealism imbues the best of his record sleeve designs with something truly special in the ephemeral worlds of pop music and packaging: the power to last. Rick Poynor

What Saville did was to make the ordinary (record sleeves, posters) gorgeous; he believed we should have the best. And since he did it within the surrounds of pop music, everyone's first introduction to art and the one we're most obsessive about, he hit us early and in the heart.

  • Miranda Sawyer

Peter Saville has always been designed by Peter Saville. -Paul Morley

Designed by Peter Saville

Published by Frieze, 23rd May, 2003 Paperback with flaps, 192 pp, full colour c.250 illustrations


Thanks to Ricardo for the submission! :thumb:

Check the book's webpage on NewOrderOnline to see more pictures.

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nice! once I came across a book of the most influential english designers of the 80s or something. it had 5 or 6 works from saville including still and de NO flag of the american technique tour 89. the book was in my university but it was all cutted so maybe it originally had more pages. a strange item...

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didn't he work with roxy music back in the day, as well? must have been during his 'let's put loads of jerry hall lookalikes on album covers' phase.

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I'm growing more and more tired of Mr. Saville's "work". Have you seen the book's cover? A computer-generated rendition of Unknown pleasures' picture sleeve! What next? A 3D animated - in glorious ILM Jar-Jar Binks style- Technique Cherub?

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I think his work is genius :nod:

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Yes i too think the guy is BRILLIANT and want a copy of this book.Sometimes the covers to the 12 inch records were almost as good as the record itself.:D

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Don't get me wrong... but for me, he USED to be great! Let's see: Pulp's We love life International Retro

Get it?

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and where does one get a copy of this book...dummy me i'm a librarian...

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Originally posted by AgentWood didn't he work with roxy music back in the day, as well? must have been during his 'let's put loads of jerry hall lookalikes on album covers' phase.

He was involved with Flesh + Blood and Avalon. He wasn't involved with the cover for Siren, which Jerry Hall was on.

:D:D:D:D:D anita, Roxy Music fan

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this isn't one of those expensive coffee table books that weigh a ton, is it?:skeptic:

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not as expensive as one might imagine - as per Ricardo, you can pre-order it via www.magmabooks.com for 19.99 GBP plus shipping...

192 pages full colour, containing around 250 illustrations, and a nice addition to any coffee table to boot.

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