One of designer Peter Saville's best known works is the sleeve for New Order's 1983 single "Blue Monday" on Factory Records. It is die-cut to resemble a black floppy disk, and decorated with a string of colored rectangles down the edge and continuing onto the other side. The artwork for the following New Order album, Power, Corruption and Lies, features a similar sequence along the inner sleeve, as well as a short sequence on the front cover, accompanying a still-life by Henri Fantin-Latour. The rear of the album sleeve echoes the "Blue Monday" sleeve, with a corresponding white floppy disk design, accented with a large multi-colored wheel in the center.Those who had the album noticed that the outer ring of the wheel was divided into 26 wedges, the same amount as the number of letters in the alphabet. From there, it was simple to divine that the wheel began with "A" at the top and proceeded clockwise. The inner sleeve spelled out "New Order Power Corruption And Lies", and the front cover sequence became "FACT 75", the record's catalogue number. The original issue of the album contained a misspelling of "Corruption" (irony of ironies!), and this corruption of spelling was noticed by at least two fans who wrote to New Musical Express about it. Later issues were re-colored to correct the spelling.
The "Blue Monday" sleeve, when decoded, spells out "FAC 73 Blue Monday and The Beach New Order". "The Beach" is the B-side's title.
The color code is simple: each letter is translated into its alphanumeric counterpart, with A equaling 1 and Z being 26. The colors, ten total, each correspond to a digit. The first nine letters of the alphabet are matched with the color of their single-digit code. Beginning with J (number 10), letters are given two colors in the same manner. Gray spaces are inserted to separate words.
The code also appears on Saville's sleeves for New Order's "Confusion" single and Section 25's album From The Hip.
Source: Thorgerson, Storm & Aubrey Powell. 100 Best Album Covers. London: DK, 1999. p.124.
Source: Designed By Peter Saville. New York: Princeton, 2003.
