Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures
As the debut album for Joy Division it must have been a big decision to go sans text. It’s fortunate Peter Saville had the support of label manager Tony Wilson, featured in 24 Hour Party People, which allowed such great ideas to go ahead. It paid off, it’s minimalist yet still visually interesting. The cover and the music are as timeless and influential as each other.
(Update: fixed my inaccurate info)
I originally thought the lines were sound waves from a track but Wikipedia tells me it’s exactly 100 successive pulses from the first pulsar discovered PSR B1919. Just shows how little I know.
If you’re a mad Joy Division collector check this page for all the versions of the album you can track down and spend thousands on.
Here’s a scan of the original technical illustration from the Cambridge Encyclopaedia Of Astronomy which you can actually still buy on Amazon. I’m not sure if this reduces the “artistic integrity” of the design as it’s really just a scan inversed.
I found these custom NB’s with Unknown Pleasures artwork, more photos here. Pretty sweet but who wears NB’s anyway :)
This has since been shown to be an artist’s homage to Peter Saville (link).
You can also get this as a Threadless shirt here. Although it’s probably sold out like all the good shirts on Threadless.
Update: Tony Wilson died Aug 10 (today) from cancer in Manchester’s Christie Hospital ages 57.
-
Jack
