Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album
/
"Does the Catholic Church pour its wine into mouldy earthenware pots? I think not."
- co-founder Tony Wilson
As one of Britain's most influential record labels in the late 20th Century, Factory Records brought high design into the mainstream and introduced cutting-edge innovation to the music world. Between 1978 and 1992, the label launched the careers of Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays (among others), opened the legendary Hacienda club in Manchester and developed an emblematic system of assigning inventory numbers to every single piece it ever created.
Founded by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, two genuinely passionate music enthusiasts, and later taking on burgeoning designer Peter Saville, Factory Records' unique and chaotic story has been explored again and again over the years, in documentaries, articles, even in the 2002 film Twenty-Four Hour Party People.
Author Matthew Robertson compiles every 'FAC' item in this book; album covers, stationary, poster art, even legal documents in order to exhibit the label's non-conformist approach to design and how it set them apart from their contemporaries, and gave rise to some of the most original album sleeves the era.
