Peter Saville (born 1955) is a graphic designer based in his native city of Manchester, England. He has a firm, Peter Saville Associates and is mostly known for his work on album covers for Joy Division, New Order as well as other musicians signed to Factory Records, the record label he co-founded. In addition to his music-related work, his clients have included CNN, Adobe Systems, Givenchy and Stella McCartney.
Saville studied graphic design at Manchester Polytechnic from 1975 to 1978. Influenced by his fellow student, Malcolm Garrett, who had begun designing for the Manchester punk group, the Buzzcocks, and by Herbert Spencer's Pioneers of Modern Typography, Saville was inspired by Jan Tschichold, chief propagandist for the New Typography. Saville entered the music scene after meeting Tony Wilson, the journalist and television presenter, whom he approached at a Patti Smith gig in 1978. This resulted in Wilson commissioning the first Factory Records poster, Fac 1, Saville's first Classical/Modernist work. In July 1978 he graduated from Manchester with a first class degree. After leaving college, Saville co-founded Factory Records with Wilson, Rob Gretton and Alan Erasmus.
In 1979, he moved to London and became art director of the Virgin offshoot, Din Disc. He subsequently created a body of work which furthered his refined take on Modernism, working for everyone from Roxy Music to OMD.
In March 2004, Saville was appointed creative director for Manchester city.
Selected works
Further reading
Designed by Peter Saville - Peter Saville (Princeton Architectural Press, 2003)
External links
