Studio Parris Wakefield design TOTAL from Joy Division to New Order

Endeavouring to capture the essence of Joy Division and New Order, both Peter Saville and I agreed that typography could be the link. We agreed that the Helvetica Heavy Italic from Technique, conveyed the 'look' of New Order, however Joy Division was predominantly uppercase. By merging the two, a TOTAL was created.

The design is a 'nod' to Run2's commercial packaging; while the out-of-register CMYK references the perils of clients printing without proofs, which now-a-days happens all too frequently…

I initially positioned TOTAL as large as it would fit on the cover, only for the band to say it had too much white space.

For me, the 'O' was the sexiest letter, the overlapping letterforms created a further Technique / Run 2 memory and funnily enough was the only letter to appear in New Order, Joy Division and TOTAL. So I decided that to reduce the white space, I would zoom into the kaleidoscopic 'O' and wrap the rest around.

Clients are always requesting 'make it larger', so here was an opportunity not to be missed. I love the irony that the final design is massive and out-of-register... yet beautiful.

Written by Howard Wakefield, creative director Studio Parris Wakefield.

TOTAL from Joy Division to New Order is released on 6 June 2011 and is available to pre-order