The Iconic Album Artwork That Inspired Countless Fashion Collaborations
Joy Division: Unkown Pleasures album cover, designed by Peter Saville.
No British band has ever made such a huge impact in such a short time as Joy Division did. Their seminal debut release Unknown Pleasures has gone on to become a cult classic, with the album cover designed by the world renowned graphic designer Peter Saville completely transcending the band and going on to become one of the most famous pieces of music iconography.
The Unknown Pleasures album cover was inspired by a sound landscape from CP1919, showing radio emissions given out by a pulsar. The mysterious allure of the stark white lines traversing the pitch-black cover was quickly adopted as a pop-cultural icon by the post-punk generation, and has since been referenced on countless t-shirts, tattoos, and other merchandise.
CP1919 Pulsar, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy (1977)
Many different brands have paid homage to Peter Saville’s ingenious design, as well as the deeply resonating musicality of the album. Most notable is the highly recognised streetwear brand Supreme, who in 2005 collaborated with Peter Saville to release two skateboard decks with the iconic artwork painted on the underside.
Supreme x Peter Saville - 2005 Unknown Pleasures Skateboard Deck
Another highly revered fashion collaboration featuring the iconic artwork was seen in Raf Simons’ 2003 collection. The Belgian fashion designer collaborated with Saville to make Simon’s Fall/Winter “Closer” line (named after Joy Division’s second album, also designed by Saville). It included knit sweaters, black leather jackets, and full length parkas emblazoned with the iconic pulse waves.
Raf Simons FW03 - “Closer”
This all goes to show how impactful the design was, but also how infinitely resonating the album was for many people. It also illustrates the power of collaboration when it comes to creating new interpretations of a timeless piece of design.
But it doesn’t stop there. This year, we have what is perhaps the most profound use of the world famous pulsar design. Peter Saville’s restless creativity has once again shone through, with a rework of his original waveform design, this time in collaboration with Music Declares Emergency.
Music Declares Emergency is a group of artists, music industry professionals and organisations that stand together to declare a climate and ecological emergency and call for an immediate governmental response to protect all life on Earth. As a collaborative effort with this group, Peter Saville reworked the iconic piece into flat lines, symbolising the eternal silence of a dead planet, with the words ‘No music on a dead planet’ printed beneath the graphic.
This rework is available printed on recently released t-shirts, all of which are certified organic cotton, GM free, not tested on animals, and printed in the UK with low waste printing tech. Each t-shirt is made in a renewable energy powered factory audited for a wide range of social and sustainability criteria.
If anything, it is incredibly heartwarming to see the original artwork being repurposed for the greater good of our environment, and it’s certainly humbling for us all to see the design revolve in a full-circle since its original inception. Above all, it highlights the importance of collaboration in art and design, as well as the wide reaching impact this can have on the rest of the world. What was once the album art that perfectly symbolised the darkly enticing rift that Joy Division created in the punk era, has now been reworked to symbolise the potential consequence of our lack of environmental action.