Peter Saville (graphic Designer) - Work After Factory Records

Work After Factory Records

In 1979 Saville moved from Manchester to London and became art director of the Virgin offshoot, DinDisc. He subsequently created a body of work which furthered his refined take on Modernism, producing work for artists such as King Crimson, Roxy Music, Duran Duran, Wham!, Ultravox, Peter Gabriel and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. He was paid more to design Gabriel's 1986 album So than for any other record sleeve in his career; he received £20,000. Saville founded the design agency Peter Saville Associates (still designing primarily for musical artists and record labels) before he was invited to close his office in 1990 to join the partner-owned Pentagram.

In 1993 Saville left London and moved to Los Angeles, to join ad agency Frankfurt Balkind with Brett Wickens. Saville soon returned to London, however, where he asked designer Howard Wakefield to restart the design studio. For three years they became known as "The Apartment" for the German advertising agency Meiré & Meiré, and worked from Saville's modernist apartment in Mayfair that also doubled as the London studio. (The same apartment is depicted in the record sleeve of Pulp's album This Is Hardcore). The Apartment produced works for clients such as Mandarina Duck and Smart Car. In 1999 Saville moved to offices in Clerkenwell, later renaming the studio in 2002 as Saville Associates. In 2005 it was renamed again as Saville Parris Wakefield.

Saville grew in demand as a younger generation of people in advertising and fashion had grown up with his work for Factory Records. He reached a creative and a commercial peak with design consultancy clients such as Selfridges, EMI and Pringle. Other significant commissions came from the field of fashion. Saville's fashion clients have included Jil Sander, Martine Sitbon, John Galliano, Yohji Yamamoto, Christian Dior and Stella McCartney. Saville often worked in collaboration with longtime friend, fashion photographer Nick Knight. The two launched an art and fashion website SHOWstudio in November 2000. Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons was granted full access to the archives of Saville's vintage Factory projects and made a personal selection of Saville-designed works to integrate them into Raf Simon's "Closer" Autumn/Winter 2003-4 collection.

In 2004, Saville became Creative Director of the city of Manchester, as a consultant.

In 2010, Saville designed the England football team home shirt.

In 2012 Peter Saville collaborated with Dovecot Studios Edinburgh in celebration of their centenery to create a large scale tapestry of his work After, After Monach of the Glen. This new tapestry commission is Dovecot Studios re appropriation of Peter Saville’s appropriation of Sir Peter Blake’s appropriation of Sir Edwin Landseer’s 1851 painting Monarch of the Glen.