The lecture theatre was sold out, with a screen set up outside for people who couldn’t find a seat, I found this strange considering you had to pay for that privilege. Anyway Adrian Shaughnessy sat and interviewed Saville for well over the 2.5hours planned, asking less then 8 questions but this was due to his natural ability to talk and talk some more. Predictably a large portion of the questions and discussion focused on his work with the music industry and Factory Records, however this must be more then a formality for him, he went onto state, “Music covers are not graphic design, they do not communicate anything” and, ‘No one should be designing record covers after the age of 30’. Surprisingly honest and funny.

In the later part of the interview Shaughnessy asked Saville to talk about his latest job role, Creative Director of Manchester one which he was awarded in 2004 and for me this was the most interesting part of the lecture. This topic raises numerous questions for instance, how go about branding a city? How do you measure Saville’s success, is it by the equity added to the city from external investment, do you compare it to the likes of Bilbao, Barcelona and Berlin and or is it measured internally by the improvement made to lives of people in Manchester. Although a large percentage of his work is forever associated with one city and one sector that being Manchester and its musical heritage, it a credit to Saville that the ideology which forms the basis of the branding in Manchester  the ‘Original Modern city’, pays homage to the cities birth out of the industrial revolution.

In my opinion this lecture was best when Saville wasn’t discussing his days with Factory Records but rather the branding of Manchester or being provoked to talk about by a topic. I wasn’t sure which D&AD video of the lecture to embed, since there isn’t a video of him discussing the Kate Moss logo and Philip Green which was very funny. The video below although slightly clichéd is of him being incited by the audience to discuss Banksey, Damien Hurst and the over blowen art market of London. 

Related links
- Peter Saville’s biography at the Design Museum London
- A collection of D&AD videos from the Peter Saville lecture on Vimeo
- Mr Doobs Unknown Pleasures Flash visualizer
- D&AD blog post on the lecture
- Eye Magazine article on the Peter Saville lecture
- Blueprint Magazine article on the Peter Saville lecture
- Creative Review article on the Peter Saville lecture