Factory Records was a Manchester based British independent record label, started in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, which featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as
Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Northside, and (briefly) Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and James.
Like the label 4AD Records, Factory Records used a creative team (most notably record producer Martin Hannett and graphic designer Peter Saville) which gave the label and the artists recording for it, a particular sound and image. The label employed a unique cataloguing system that gave a number not just to its musical releases, but to artwork and other objects, as well.
The history behind the data-based artwork on Joy Division's iconic "Unknown Pleasures" album cover.
“I did covers for myself. I designed the cover that I would like to have.”
Peter was asked to come up with a design to celebrate Lacoste's 80th birthday. "They said: 'Do anything you want, but don't touch the crocodile logo.' So that's what I did: destroyed the crocodile. Digitally shattered it in 80 different ways." He shows me the resulting shirts. "A completely fucked crocodile," he laughs. "I felt I had to do it because of this sort of brand obsession. People talk about brands and it's awful. You can sell anything with a logo on. That needed to be questioned."
Peter Saville interprets Lacoste's crocodile logo for Holiday Collector polo shirts
“Pop culture used to be like LSD – different, eye-opening and reasonably dangerous. It’s now like crack – isolating, wasteful and with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.”
