One of my favorite interviews nearly cost me $600. I phoned Peter Saville in London – the graphic designer behind some of Factory Record’s most famous album covers – from a hotel room in Melbourne.
As it turns out, Peter Saville is incredibly talkative. He must have been interviewed by a thousand journalists over the years, all repeating the same questions, and yet he pondered each of mine like they were the most provocative questions he’d ever heard. We spoke for hours, and I forgot I was paying exorbitant rates for the call (until the hotel gave me my $600 phone bill the next morning, and I nearly fainted).
Mostly, we discussed Saville’s recent role as Creative Director for the city of Manchester and his plans to create a design destination on par with Bilbao and Barcelona. I love the fact that Manchester city had the foresight to hire a graphic designer to play a major role in revitalizing the city. We also spoke about Australian designer Matthew Robertson’s book, Factory Records: the complete graphic album. I think he’s brilliant.
