The Durutti Column | Obey the Time | 1990
In the age of dematerialisation, and as strange as it may seem to the ‘digital native’ generation, there was a time when music meant records (yes, records, vinyl or CDs) which came along with genuine cover artwork.
The pioneering work of design consultancy 8vo and their use of typography had an influence on graphic design throughout the late 1980s and the early 1990s. One illustrative example is the artwork for The Durutti Column‘s ‘Obey the Time’ (Factory records catalogue FAC 274), released in 1990. Though musically probably not their best album, it was graphically innovative, with 8vo’s trademark use of negative letter-spacing.
Their approach to typography and their work in general are detailed in a book published in 2006, ‘On the outside.’