It’s not a great surprise I imagine, given my musical tastes as documented on VersionCrazy, to realise that I like much of the design work by Peter Saville. ‘Estate 1-127’ is the second book solely dedicated to his work that I bought, the first being ‘Designed by Peter Saville’. That had coincided with a retrospective exhibition at London’s Design Museum in 2003, ‘The Peter Saville Show’.
^ Peter Saville ‘Estate 1-127’ exhibition catalogue front cover
The two books are, on the surface, quite similar in approach and equally valuable if you have an interest in his work. ‘Designed by Peter Saville’ goes heavy on the essays from a range of writers and features full page, beautifully shot photographic examples of finished, designed product along with smaller sized background source/inspiration and accompanying materials. ‘Peter Saville Estate 1-127’ was published in 2007, two years after the ‘Estate’ show itself at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst Zürich, Switzerland. The crucial difference is that in this book, you get to see far more in the way of the working processes behind so many iconic designs rather than the finished works themselves, whether that be logotype paste-ups, work-in-progress drafts, manufacturer samples or Pantone colour swatch cut outs. Each is accompanied by captions written by Frieze magazine’s Dan Fox.
I’ve featured some photos of a few recognisable examples here that highlight the traditional paste-up approach used in the process toward creating the beautifully finished final products, a fascinating glimpse into a working process that was commonplace once but has long since gone in the era of computerised design work.
The good news is that the book still appears to be in print and available from the Museum shop if your appetite has been whetted enough.
^ Peter Saville ‘Estate 1-127’ spread 1 – New Order – Confusion artwork detail
^ Peter Saville ‘Estate 1-127’ spread 2 – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Electricity artwork detail
^ Peter Saville ‘Estate 1-127’ spread 3 – Grafica Industria logotype artwork detail
^ Peter Saville ‘Estate 1-127’ spread 4 – Factory Communications Limited logotype artwork detail
^ Peter Saville ‘Estate 1-127’ spread 5 – New Order – ‘Movement’ cassette inlay artwork detail
It’s a small detail, but it’s interesting to note how Savilles’s design work for Ultravox is effectively written out of the history across both books, given how much work was done for them. Thank goodness for sites such as Peter Saville Sleeve Design for documenting the many and varied works over the years.
