Cerysmatic.Factory

Support the starving artist

2009-10-03T13:00:00.000+01:00

Cerysmatic attended the London book launch for Manchester: Looking for the Light through the Pouring Rain by Kevin Cummins on Thursday 1 October 2009 at the Amuti Gallery near Russell Square in London.

A good crowd including Mike Pickering, Mark Farrow, Paul Morley, Richard Boon, Pete Shelley, Noel Gallagher and Gonnie Rietveld celebrated the culmination of five years hard work in style.

Thanks to Kevin Cummins, Richard Boon, Paul Morley and Pete Shelley for collectively making the draw for the winner of the recent Kevin Cummins competition (commemorative pic included).

Congratulations to Richard Shepherd who wins a copy of the book together with a set of posters. Thanks for all your many entries. The answers were: 1. b. Paul Morley, 2. The author is of course a fan of Manchester City FC and 3. Buzzcocks (Nov 77).

Meanwhile, a new event has been added to Kevin's busy promotional schedule, this time as part of In The City 2009 in Manchester.

DJ Dave Haslam and Live Images by Kevin Cummins
ITC Official Fringe Event

Sunday 18 October 2009
10.15-11pm Kings Arms, Bloom Street, Salford, M3 6AN
FREE entry

Presented By FMS Promotions

Part of Shouting from the Sidelines
3 nights of Independent Music
18-20 October 2009
Free Entry

This aftershow event - which follows an evening of local Manchester bands (5.30-10pm) combines iconic music from DJ Dave Haslam with an AV live mix of the iconic images of Kevin Cummins. Two great legends of the Manchester music scene join together for one of the must see after show parties of this years ITC music festival.

More info on Facebook.

Haçienda Blanka y Negro

2008-10-16T18:38:00.000+01:00

The always fastidious people over at Blanka are currently working on a lovely reprint of designer Mark Farrow's classic 15th Anniversary Haçienda poster, shipping on 11 November. Each print is numbered and signed in a limited edition of 251.

Farrow explains: "We designed this poster to celebrate the 15th birthday of the Hacienda. We had no idea at the time that it would be the club's last. The code 51 15 25 05 97 (Fac 51 is 15 on 25 05 97) was printed in a reflective ink onto a grey background which rendered it almost invisible in daylight. The poster only came to life at night under the glare of car headlights. Our reasoning being that the message was only important to people who were out after dark."

Pre-Orders are being taken now. Go here for more details and photos. An additional set of full-size photos are here on Flickr.

Insert gratuitous Factory Records reference here

2008-09-22T23:46:00.000+01:00

It seems that some of our fashion critics were lazy enough to all use the same press release quotes AS their reviews of designer Giles Deacon during London Fashion Week.

Financial Times: "Deacon's collection riffed the bold colour palette associated with designer Peter Saville's album covers for 1980s Manchester bands such as New Order."

The Independent: "His inspirations this time around were the art director Peter Saville, and the interior designer Ben Kelly."

International Herald Tribune: "I was looking at all the graphic artists of the 1990s - Mark Farrow, Ben Kelly, Peter Saville."

We're still breathlessly awaiting further expansion on that "bold colour palette" associated with Peter Saville & New Order...

Contemporary Graphic Design

2007-09-04T13:29:00.000+01:00

Graphic design afficionados across the world will welcome the imminent arrival of a new compendium from everyone's favourite coffee table book publisher, Taschen. The book, 'Contemporary Graphic Design' is out now and not only does it feature a Peter Saville-designed cover it has sections on both Saville and Mark Farrow.

'This compendium showcases the extraordinary cutting-edge work of 100 of the world's most progressive graphic designers, from the hard-hitting political messages of Jonathan Barnbrook to the lyrical digital compositions of Peter Saville to the iconoclastic imagery of Stefan Sagmeister. Alongside the array of visually stunning and thought-provoking advertisements, CD covers, posters, packaging, websites, and corporate identities are texts by each designer expressing his or her individual approach to graphic design practice as well as personal insights into the motivations that lie behind the work. An accompanying introductory essay highlights the current issues surrounding graphic design practice, from the ascendancy of digital tools to the amorality of consumerism. By presenting a provocative survey of the latest, most experimental and forward-looking graphic design from around the globe, this exciting book provides a unique and totally unforgettable snapshot of where the discipline stands today and hopefully offers directions for its future.
Contemporary Graphic Design is absolutely essential to anyone interested in the power of images.'

Edited By Charlotte & Peter Fiell
Hardcover Plus Clear Plastic Wrap With Yellow Typo
19.6 x 24.9 cm
560 pages
ISBN 978-3-8228-5269-9
€ 29.99

Cover Illustration: Peter Saville
Project: 'Suite For Adobe', Special Edition Marketing Poster 2003 (In Collaboration With Howard Wakefield)
Client: Adobe

Endpapers: Peter Saville
Project: 'Waste Painting #1 En Suite', Unique Iris Print 2003 (In Collaboration With Howard Wakefield)
Client: Paul Stolper Gallery

Deeply Vale Festivals - The DVD

2007-07-22T23:36:00.000+01:00

A new dvd out 28 July 2007 will chronicle the history of the Deeply Vale Festival. The running time is approximately 220 mins and the content is spread over three main parts. The dvd comes with an in-depth booklet on the festival as well as all the film footage listed below.

It will be available priced 17.99 GBP from:

Ozit Morpheus Records
PO Box 116
Northwich
Cheshire CW9 5UG

Telephone orders (Switch, Maestro, Mastercard, Visa accepted) on 01565 734066 or 01565 734577

Email orders to ozitrecords@which.net

Full running order
Part One: Deeper Deeply Vale

Music, performances and rare video from:
Mick Middles' memories Part One
Misty In Roots - Six One Penny
Here and Now - What You see is What You are
Spizz Energi - Medley
Wilful Damage - Punk Space Rock
The Fall - intro by Marc Riley / Bingo Masters Break Out inc video comments from Mark E Smith
Tractor - Watching White Stars
Guitar George Borowski - This is not love
Ruts - Jah Wars
Nik Turner - Anubis plus Interview
Pete Farrow - Fixin to Die
Trevor Hyett - You just can't make it by yourself
Tony Crabtree - God Damn It We're All Gonna Die
Body - Brave New World
Danny and The Dressmakers - Ernie Bishop's Dead Body
Mick Middles' memories - Part Two
Steve Hillage - Searching for the Spark
David Bacha and DJ Foggy - Beautiful Friday Night
Accident on the East Lancs - We Want it Legalised
Fast Cars - Who loves Jimmy Anderton
The Trend - The Cookie Flow
Unknown artist 1
Dave Smith's on stage speech
Unknown artist 2
Unknown artist 3
Alchemist
Foreign Press - Downpour
Rivington Spyke - Poetry
Unknown artist 4
Elti Fits - Rebel Rebel

[wherever possible, audio soundtracks and film and stills from the actual festival have been used for each artist]

Part Two: Truly Madly Deeply Vale: 49 min documentary
Including original footage and interviews with:
Jimi Goodwin - Doves
Mark E Smith
Chris Hewitt - one of the festival organisers
Vini Reilly - The Durutti Column
Andy McCluskey - OMD
Jim Milne - Tractor
Steve Clayton - Tractor
Graham Massey - 808 State
Grant Showbiz
Steve Hillage
Alan Hempsall - Crispy Ambulance
Luke Bainbridge - Observer Music Monthly
Stuart and Steve Murray - Fast Cars

Part Three: Interview extras

Steve Cowen - Mock Turtles
Mark E Smith - around twenty minutes of classic Mark E Smith talking about Deeply Vale and The Fall
Jimi Goodwin - Doves
Vini Reilly - The Durutti Column
Andy McCluskey - OMD
Luke Bainbridge - Observer Music Monthly
Graham Massey (Biting Tongues, 808 State)

Grafik 150

2007-06-18T19:45:00.000+01:00

Grafik Magazine has announced a new book to celebrate its 150th issue. It features contributions by 150 of today's most exciting and influential designers. Over a double page spread, each designer writes about and illustrates an idea, person, place or thing that has influenced and inspired them. Contributors include Central Station Design, Mark Farrow, Peter Saville, plus a who's who of world designers.

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Grafik 150
304 pages
150mm x 115mm x 25mm
10.00 GBP + p&p (UK)
Buy it now

Pet Shop Boys Versus Factory

2007-01-03T08:25:00.000+00:00

The excellent book 'Pet Shop Boys - Catalogue' (Thames and Hudson, ISBN 978-0-500-51307-1) by Philip Hoare and Chris Heath contains a number of insights relevant to ardent Factory fans and is a darn good read and beautifully put together to boot.

Main PSB designer Mark Farrow served his apprenticeship at Factory and brought with him many of Factory's design ethics as the following extracts show (with occasional annotations):

West End Girls

'the 12" sleeve was partly designed by Chris. It has a marked relationship to the design of New Order's Blue Monday 12" by Peter Saville (which emulated an early computer disc and was die-cut and ruinously expensive to produce) - the release of which was said to have brought Neil close to tears when it arrived at Smash Hits, so liberally did it seem to borrow from the. style of their favourite producer, Bobby 'O'.'

(Bobby 'O' would later, in turn, in a supreme irony, rip off Blue Monday. In a further twist, New Order would also do a live cover of Divine's Love Reaction which was a Bobby 'O' production!)

West End girls (remix)

Mark Farrow - 'I hated the original sleeve - the fact that there were two different typefaces, one of the typefaces had three different sizes in it, just everything about it I loathed and detested. I had the whole Factory ethic in my head. So the first thing I did was strip all the type off it, and we just had the coloured blocks and the background.'

(The myriad unofficial remixes like 'West End Sunglasses', put out by Bobby 'O' feature badly designed sleeves that have nothing to do with the Farrow designs, except for some "borrowed" typeface theft.)

Please (album, 1986)

'The design of Please, released in March 1986, was as minimal as its title. Virtually every detail was stripped away, leaving only an image barely bigger than a postage stamp, with the group's name and album title below. The effect was to draw the viewer in, towards what is ostensibly an innocent image, but is in fact one of seductive desire. Mark Farrow had designed a sleeve at Factory Records for the group Section 25 with a tiny photo on it, and had liked the way it looked. 'It's almost the starting point, when I design a cover, that it shouldn't look like a cover', says Farrow.'

Opportunities (single, May 1986)

'It's a kind of a Factory sleeve, really', says Mark Farrow. 'It was gold and silver because that's what money is. I don't remember there being any big decision about there not being a photo on it.'

Domino Dancing

'Again, that's like a Factory sleeve, but rather than finding something really obscure, it was a Polaroid of Neil and Chris. It was presenting everything to do with the record in a very matter-of-fact way.'

Behaviour

'In Japan the album was released also in a white velvet box, a fantastically impractical and almost fetishistic object to rival Factory Records' celebrated The Return of the Durutti Column, which came clad in sandpaper.'

(It might be added that the "velvet" box really has nowhere near the "fetish" aspects of FACT 14. But it does have an almost magnetic attraction to dirt and dust and it doesn't ruin the rest of your record collection.)

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Furthermore, photographers like Robert Mapplethorpe, The Douglas Brothers, Wolfgang Tillmans, Trevor Key all did PSB and FAC work.

And then there's Electronic...

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With thanks to OMNY.

Delicate precision

2004-09-23T20:43:00.000+01:00

Mark Farrow has been voted the best graphic designer working today by Creative Review in its annual Peer Poll. The October 2004 special issue features an extensive interview with Mark at his Bloomsbury studio. Peter Saville, the winner of this award for the last two years, once famously called him 'the apprentice', a tag that he laughs off with the quip "Besides, I'm a lot more successful than he is".