3 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 3 album covers documented under the "post punk" design theme, spanning the 1970s, 1980s. These covers sit within the electronic, rock, punk tradition and feature work by New Order, The Slits, Gang of Four. Each entry below includes the cover artwork, the designers and photographers behind it, and a short story about the visual choices that defined the release.
Peter Saville answered New Order's uncertain first album with an image from Italian Futurism: a 1932 Fortunato Depero design whose obsession with movement and speed suited a band trying to move beyond Joy Division.
In a Surrey rose garden, the Slits covered themselves in mud and faced Pennie Smith's camera like warriors. Their debut album Cut turned a photograph of three women refusing the usual rules of femininity into one of punk's most confrontational sleeves.
Gang of Four's Entertainment! cover turns a familiar cowboy-and-Indigenous-American image into a blunt lesson about power. Jon King's deliberately rough design repeats the handshake three times, then uses captions to expose the exploitation hidden inside the friendly pose.