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.
Adam:
This is one of my favorites. I think it really suits the title of the album, but I cant really pin down why.
I only have the cd version tho…:(
# 10 Aug 07 at 9:53 pm
johan:
“Joy Division did pretty well too :)”
are you kidding?
# 11 Aug 07 at 12:41 am
Paul:
Peter Saville ran/runs Factory Records? That’s new to me…and everybody else in the world.
# 11 Aug 07 at 1:45 am
Ash:
Sorry everyone, my big stuff up. I had in my head Peter ran the art department of the label but it wasn’t so. Sorry about that.
And yes I was joking about JD doing well, hence the smiley. In referring to how good the artwork was it seemed the albums music was of less importance. But both are as highly regarded today as they ever were then.
# 12 Aug 07 at 11:15 am
Kristen:
I am doing my thesis on FACTORY records.
Its interesting how Saville for alot of his work sourced material outside that of Pop culture. He was more intuitive of what was going on in the art world, but he would then appropriate these ideas for a more ‘Pop’ audience. ie. Power, Corruption & Lies, Technique.
# 23 Aug 07 at 5:53 pm
pat:
as a series of signals from a pulsar the graph represents the last commmunications from a dying star - I don’t know for sure that this was the artists intention but it certainly fits.
# 24 Aug 07 at 9:23 am
On the Cover « Post Tenebras Lux:
[…] is a rundown of Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division. Posted by JLB Filed in […]
# 09 Nov 07 at 1:43 pm