Peter Saville

Peter Saville Happy Mondays album cover

Peter Saville born October 1955 is an English art director and graphic designer who created this album art for 'Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches' the third album by British band Happy Mondays. It was released in 1990 and was produced by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne at Eden Studios in London. The design itself is really busy. It has been created to look like a collage of sweets, treats and food packaging from the US. (This was changed following objections from the U.S. manufacturers, resulting in the new, somewhat plainer album cover.)

This creates a retro style feel to the vinyl cover and an interesting piece of work to look at.

Because of the collage style background the text itself is made difficult to read, as it is only the outlines of the text that are visible. The busy style design is a rebellious attitude towards grphics as when you look at this piece it is hard to tell whether of not it is aesthetically pleasing or not. The bright, bold colours that also create a child like theme emphasise the use of drugs reference 'pills n thrills' which was common in music and lyrics, as well as childrens tv programmes of this era.

By using a bold, forward facing and risen text the artist allows the words to jump out at audiences, creating a friendly and memorable piece of text, as well as art for those to keep forever. The band 'Happy Mondays' is strongly portrayed in his piece as a fun, loving and child friendly by the use of brights and sweet wrappers as well as using the words 'belly aches' which denotes a child like theme as well as taking older fans back to their childood. This album design is successful because it creates a rush of emotions for the target audience, not only bringing them back to their younger days but also by capturing the designs and prints of those times, as well as being a bold, eye catching piece that appeals to those who enjoy the music of Happy Mondays.