How The Band New Order Turned Me Into A Graphic Designer

I was in a friend’s basement when I was 16 years old, and he put this CD on. It was from the pioneering synth/dance/rock band New Order’s Substance album, and the song was the John Robie remix of Subculture.

I was totally entranced by it. It was all about the tension and contrast:It was electronic, but it was rock. It had dry, cold British “white” male vocals with soulful “black” female backup singers. The band was from Manchester, England but the remix, for its time, was cutting edge American dance music.

After that, I had to learn everything I possibly could about the band.

I went in a mission to devour everything and all things New Order. But along with New Order, came the work of seminal designer Peter Saville. Primarily it was the art work for New Order’s final album of the 90s, Republic, that set me on my way to becoming a graphic designer. I was unaware, he was using a relatively new graphics program called Photoshop to create stunning, layered, photo montages.

Peter Saville is a graphic/music design “rock star” in his own right. He was the primary designer for Factory Records, the legendary…