Logan Hall is a big lecture theatre. Pater Saville has sold it out. They've had to bring in cameras so that the people who couldn't get in can watch from the foyer. In the world of graphic design, Peter Saville is as close to rock star status as you can get.
But in this interview with graphic design stalwart Adrian Shaughnessy, Saville spends most of his time discussing how he dislikes the world of graphic design, doesn't title himself a graphic designer and he really just wants to be known as an artist. Shaughnessy says he wants to get behind the Saville myth, but I think he just ended up reinforcing it. Even when Saville admitted something I'd always suspected, that he had very little to do with the actual design of the sleeve art for Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, one of the works that made his reputation, you can't help but think that this is just more of the typical Factory Records myth-building.
But we've all heard the Factory story and seen those record sleeves a thousand times before. The thing which really interested me was what he said about is role as 'Creative Director of Manchester'. A unique position in the world of communication design and a job he claimed he never wanted (which in true Mancunian tradition is the reason he was offered it). As part of it, he did do a logo for Manchester but as he says, you will rarely see it. Where would you put it? How can you brand a city? So he has made it his role now to act as a provocateur, working behind the scenes to make sure that creatively, Manchester raises it's game. Although he's lived and worked in London for around 30 years, his story is intrinsically tied to Manchester, he is a product of Manchester. No doubt, through this work, his myth continues...
D&AD Lectures
