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TOTAL sleeve by Peter Saville and ParrisWakefield
Posted by Gavin Lucas, 23 May 2011, 17:55 Permalink Comments (48)
Peter Saville and and Howard Wakefield of design studio ParrisWakefield have collaborated on the artwork of a new compilation of music by Joy Division and New Order called TOTAL, due for release on June 6 from Rhino...
Endeavouring to capture the essence of both Joy Division and New Order, Wakefield tells us that the Helvetica Heavy Italic used on the cover of New Order's Technique album, perfectly conveyed the band's graphic look, and also that, typographically speaking, Joy Division was predominantly uppercase. So for the cover of this new compilation, the two were merged and the word TOTAL was set in italicised upper case Helvetica Heavy.
Originally the word TOTAL, as below, was set to appear as large as possible so it fitted on the front cover. However the band decided there was too much white space.
"The 'O' was the sexiest letter," says Wakefield, "with the overlapping letter-forms alluding to the sleeve of New Order's Technique album and also to the band's 1989 single, Run 2. Funnily enough 'O' is also the only letter to appear in New Order, Joy Division and TOTAL." Wakefield decided to zoom in the 'O' and let the other letters wrap around the fold out CD insert. The letters also appear to wrap around from the back cover and the jewel case spine too:
Art direction: Peter Saville. Design: Howard Wakefield. TOTAL will be released on June 6. See rhino.co.uk
UPDATE: Since posting this piece, Peter Saville commented on the above sleeve in The Observer: “I realised this was a record that would be sold in supermarkets and advertised on television. So the cover has a ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ aesthetic. As you open it out, it says ‘Total’, but folded up you just see the ‘O’s. It says, ‘From Joy Division to New Order’. I couldn’t bear the words ‘Best of’. It’s a long way from the independent record shop to Tesco, almost 33 years. At Factory, I had a freedom that was unprecedented in communications design. We lived out an ideal, without business calling the shots. It was a phenomenon”
48 Comments
Huge fan of New Order- look forward to hearing it
2011-05-23 18:38:50
TOTAL respect!
2011-05-23 19:04:01
Ah yes...There was a time when a certain Mr Peter Saville would to sing to me.
He's no Enrico Caruso, that's all I'll say.
2011-05-23 19:38:36
It's a bit more New Order than Joy Division. Not sure about this at all.
2011-05-23 19:47:42
Looks OK, but should not the question be: do we really need another JD/NO compilation album? There are good ones around already, what does this add?? I think the design of compilations like 'Heart and Soul' and Substance is also better than this. It suits NO in a way, but for JD it's much too 'happy' and generic
2011-05-23 21:02:38
Bruce Mau style
2011-05-24 07:25:34
I like it but think it might have been better to just have the abstract o letterform on the cover without seeing the two t's next to it :)
2011-05-24 09:00:57
Is it just me or does this just look like the logo of a third rate (?!) petrol station?
2011-05-24 10:07:54
New heard of them. Are they any good?
2011-05-24 10:09:32
I have read the above rationale again and again but still keep coming back to that same old boring question - why? Some will say why not, but I can't help feeling that if this was any other design collaboration for any other band it would never have got past the first round to feature it here on the cr blog.
2011-05-24 11:17:45
Not convinced at all. In my opinion it falls way short of capturing the"essence" of Joy Devision. Not surprised to see it getting plenty of press though... If only some of the thousands of beautiful album covers designed by the lesser known got more of a look in. Hardformat is a great place to start: http://www.hardformat.org/
2011-05-24 11:56:09
Not convinced at all. In my opinion it falls way short of capturing the"essence" of Joy Devision. Not surprised to see it getting plenty of press though... If only some of the thousands of beautiful album covers designed by the lesser known got more of a look in. Hardformat is a great place to start: http://www.hardformat.org/
2011-05-24 11:57:19
I agree with John, TOTAL rubbish. Paying for the name.
2011-05-24 12:09:06
Funnily enough, the letter 'O' appears in the phrase 'Flogging a dead horse' and 'bloody obvious', and funnily enough both of these phrases could easily be applied to the musicians, the design, and also the pairing of the musicians and the designers.
2011-05-24 12:20:26
As big JD and NO -this comp is a total rip -off
2011-05-24 12:37:48
Looking forward to hear it.
I love this overlapping effect. I have made my logo using this technique.
2011-05-24 12:40:31
no age of consent? such a great track.. argh, ha.. who cares about the design, no age of consent?? ;)
2011-05-24 12:40:57
Went to a lecture Saville gave once. His opening remark was "If there are any design students in the audience, forget it. Being a graphic designer is shit". Must have been talking about his own work.
2011-05-24 12:46:27
If this work and 'rationale' is newsworthy, then I'll be submitting my 6 year daughters picture of mermaid, and her accompanying 'its got a bit of a fish and a bit of a woman'. Absolute tosh.
2011-05-24 12:47:25
I have to agree with many of the comments above. When you think of Peter Saville you don't think of something as unimaginative as this. The rationale to explain it seems rather weak as well. Unfortunately for me the TOTAL petrochemical brand is very strong and when you simply stick the word in a bold non serif typeface on a plain background you're just asking for that to trigger in people's minds not what was intended. Perhaps it looks better in the flesh.
2011-05-24 12:47:28
It's a nice cover but it's not exactly newsworthy. If it had been done by anyone else CR wouldn't have given it the time of day; no disrespect to PS or Howard Wakefield.
What's the bet Patrick B nominates this for a British Insurance design of the year?
- done by Peter Saville ✔
- idea not exactly original ✔
- done by Peter Saville ✔
Result !
2011-05-24 12:50:49
TOTALitarian
2011-05-24 12:51:18
Amazing what you can get away with when you've made your name
2011-05-24 12:56:52
that"s what she said
2011-05-24 12:57:32
Cheap and nasty
2011-05-24 12:57:48
Isn't this artwork very similar to the 3 mobile ads.... See 'The One Plan SIM Only' on http://www.three.co.uk/Home
Saying that I love the cropped letters and vibrancy of it all.
2011-05-24 12:59:41
Visually nice, quite striking. not sure about the retrospective justification of 'using the the 'o' as it appears across New Order, joy division and total.' Its fine to not have to justify decision making sometimes. I wanted to say that it doesn't appear that the CYMK fad is going away anytime soon, but on this occasion i think it works!
2011-05-24 13:00:40
More CD covers please, for old people like me to do images on. I just like that the CD format is being used, and will really miss it when it's gone. As for Joy Division et al - what a fuckin' great idea to flog records while you're still working out how to operate the drums, bass and keyboards. And sing. Marvelous!.. and the 'TOTAL' thing? Okay by me. 60s, petrol, service stations, the fear of sunshine. All makes sense from here.
2011-05-24 13:06:40
We once pitched for the SUEDE work as I used to know Mat quite well, he fobbed me off by saying "Do you have a flash studio in London and a penthouse apartment (insert expensive trendy London area)?"
They went with Saville, natch! We were in a grotty shared tenure converted mill in Manchester...
Seems he is still getting work based on who and where he is and past glory rather than what he does nowadays...
2011-05-24 13:17:00
I don't see how that cover relates to Joy Division at all. Actually, it doesn't. By the way, if you see Hooky, tell him to please stop going on tour doing cover versions of Joy Division with the singer from M People. It sounds f*cking awful.
2011-05-24 13:52:30
..hey David, nice to see you're not still bitter about that.
2011-05-24 13:56:01
I'm sure I did one like this on my foundation course in 95.. it was deemed shite then.
2011-05-24 14:25:00
haha rob, not bitter. The work for SUEDE was brilliant, my comment was about him getting work today based on past glory like that and the old Factory stuff… see Tony H Wilson's headstone! With respect it's dreadful.
2011-05-24 15:02:48
"Huge fan of New Order- look forward to hearing it
Corporate photography
2011-05-23 18:38:50"
REALLY? (Reissue repackage, et cetera). I'm disgusted by this compilation. Art direction by Peter Saville is always nice, however, this compilation continues to dilute the legacy that is JD/NO. Better idea: Buy the individual tracks from iTunes, or make a mixtape and download the cover, or buy one of the ten other compilations from the band's discography. Hellbent was released online for free.
Rant aside, big fan of the Technique artwork.
2011-05-24 15:25:36
The registration's way out.
2011-05-24 16:26:44
Oh dear, such a shame to see so many negative comments. Hands up who wouldn't want to work on this brief… Hands up who wasn't inspired by Peter Saville while they were at college… OK, New Order's best days are behind them… so what. I'm still a fan. It's always refreshing to see new work coming coming out of Howard Wakefield's studio. And guess what, this is a great reminder of an archive of work that turned design on it's head for a while, and left everyone playing catch-up.
And for that reason, this is a joy to see.
2011-05-24 17:31:33
Oh dear, such a shame to see so many negative comments. Hands up who wouldn't want to work on this brief… Hands up who wasn't inspired by Peter Saville while they were at college… OK, New Order's best days are behind them… so what. I'm still a fan. It's always refreshing to see new work coming coming out of Howard Wakefield's studio. And guess what, this is a great reminder of an archive of work that turned design on it's head for a while, and left everyone playing catch-up.
And for that reason, this is a joy to see.
2011-05-24 17:37:00
…looks like the moderator at CR agrees with me, he/she has posted my comment twice!
2011-05-24 17:45:54
I feel more disappointed really that it's yet another compilation package with a very poor 'unreleased track'. 'Substance 1987', 'Substance 1977-80', 'The Best of New Order', 'The Rest of New Order', 'The Best of Joy Division', 'International', 'Singles', 'Heart & Soul', 'Retro', '+-'.
'Total'? surely the next one will be 'Exhaustion'.
2011-05-24 18:56:38
BIG CREATIVE RATIONALE for a weak generic solution.
2011-05-24 20:56:01
I'm sorry Chris but you're talking utter bollox...
2011-05-24 21:12:00
Peter Saville designs a record cover and its front page news!? Do me a favour CR he didn't even design it.
2011-05-24 23:57:52
I'm sorry Chris but you're talking utter bollox...
2011-05-25 01:11:54
As much as I respect Peter Saville and the quality of work Paris Wakefield usually produce, I'm afraid, I'm with John Dowling on this one. This is not imaginative. Plainly put its lazy design, and as a result it succeeds in looking distinctively average. There was a time when Peter would have crafted this using photography, and not has he has done here using Photoshop filters.
2011-05-25 09:12:58
..all I’m gonna say is ‘45 84 89: A sides’, might notice some similarities.
2011-05-25 16:17:25
oi pete warren [deleted by moderator]
if yer gonna slag people off get your [deleted by moderator] facts right.
I don't see how that cover relates to Joy Division at all. Actually, it doesn't. By the way, if you see Hooky, tell him to please stop going on tour doing cover versions of Joy Division with the singer from M People. It sounds f*cking awful.
Pete Warren
2011-05-24 13:52:30
Heather Small was in M People, [deleted by moderator]
2011-05-26 23:02:00
“I realised this was a record that would be sold in supermarkets and advertised on television. So the cover has a ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ aesthetic. As you open it out, it says ‘Total’, but folded up you just see the ‘O’s. It says, ‘From Joy Division to New Order’. I couldn’t bear the words ‘Best of’. It’s a long way from the independent record shop to Tesco, almost 33 years. At Factory, I had a freedom that was unprecedented in communications design. We lived out an ideal, without business calling the shots. It was a phenomenon”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/gallery/2011/may/29/joydivision-neworder?picture=375035036
2011-05-30 18:05:16
I am sure Peter Saville will be reading this, crying into the bosom of some young girl. Pondering if he really needed to add those extra diamonds to his shoes and if the Playboy lifestyle was really for him. I imagine you all make him sad and force him to think about his talent in new ways.
You are here... moaning... and he is hanging out the back of something young and tight.
Yes... in a fancy apartment. Yes wearing a silk dressing gown in the afternoon and smoking a fag.
He probably got paid for that job in buttons (for his new blazer), and spent time on the project accordingly.
2011-06-29 14:00:18
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