The Story Behind the Iconic Wave Cover Art For Joy Division’s 1979 Debut Album ‘Unknown Pleasures’

Unknown Pleasures

Visualized founder Eric Klotz spoke to Factory Records art director Peter Saville about his role in designing the iconic wave cover for Joy Division’s 1979 debut album, Unknown Pleasures. The art, which was co-opted from a Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy radio wave image of pulsar CP 1919, has since become one of the most instantly recognizable in all of post-punk music.

There is no doubt a global cult around Unknown Pleasures and very much this image.

Unknown Pleasures
image via Scientific American

Unknown Pleasures
image via Scientific American

via Scientific American

Brian Heater
Brian Heater