Peter Saville (graphic designer)
Peter Andrew Saville, CBE, RDIs (born 9 October 1955) is an English art director and graphic designer known for his iconic record sleeves and bold branding. He co-founded Factory Records in 1978 with Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus and designed many sleeves for Factory artists, especially Joy Division and New Order. Born in Manchester, he studied graphic design at Manchester Polytechnic and met Wilson, which led to the first Factory poster and a lasting collaboration.
Influenced by the New Typography movement and designers like Jan Tschichold, Saville developed a modern, recontextualizing approach to images. He often collaborated with Ben Kelly and, together, won an award for OMD’s self-titled 1980 album sleeve.
In 1979 he moved to London to become art director of Dindisc, where he created sleeves for Roxy Music, Wham!, Ultravox and Peter Gabriel’s So (a £20,000 fee). He later founded Peter Saville Associates and joined Pentagram in 1990. His work extended beyond music into fashion and branding, with clients such as Jil Sander, Dior, Calvin Klein and Yohji Yamamoto, frequently collaborating with photographer Nick Knight and helping launch SHOWstudio in 2000.
Saville’s influence reached fashion as Raf Simons used his Factory-era archives for collections. The Design Museum staged The Peter Saville Show in 2003, and he was appointed Creative Director of the City of Manchester in 2004, contributing to the Manchester International Festival. He redesigned the England home shirt for 2010 and, in 2018, redrew the Burberry logo for Riccardo Tisci.
He has earned numerous accolades, including three D&AD awards, the Royal Designer for Industry honor, and the London Design Medal in 2013. In 2020 he was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to design. He continues to work with LoveFrom (Jony Ive’s studio) and remains a driving force in graphic design, shaping music packaging and fashion branding today.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 12:49 (CET).