ACCOZZAGLIA

so.

i’m still reexamining stuff, pertinent to last night’s introspection. consider this an addendum.

i pulled out almost all of my Factory discography and Peter Saville content. not all, cos i remember missing a couple of discs. i laid everything out onto the dry bar (minus the non-Saville Factory stuff) and really started re-examining Saville’s critique and commentary on his approaches within each era of his work.

the early era was a combination of appropriation and experimentation with printing techniques, costs be damned. he was the very opposite of me: he was given an open-ended budget where costs weren’t the issue inasmuch as the final results and the visual statement each project expressed. i’ll admit it: he got a lucky, rare break of being in precisely the right place at the right time. virtually no one gets that lucky.

meanwhile, i’ve operated on creating a similar premise in an age of cheaper digital tools, except with excessively constrained budgets. sometimes the budget doesn’t even call for enough to use stock art, much less commission my own work. i’ve always been in the wrong place at the wrong time. virtually no one gets that lucky.

though it’s a spilt milk comparison, i’m left with little doubt that had the roles been reversed, we’d end up in each other’s shoes today. then again, its impossible to burden someone with the onus of the shit that has kept doors of opportunity closed to me where others would pass through unscathed.

and for those unaware, it has zero to do with talent, ambition and previous work samples.

also, i discovered that on the Section 25 album, From The Hip, from 1984, Saville employed a polarised ink accentuation. maybe it’s even a polarised varnish, given its transparency over the 4C undercoated contone photo. in all, no fewer than six, maybe seven plates were used: 4C process + polarised varnish accent + fluorescent orange type + glossy varnish wash.

either way, i hadn’t really noticed it before, and to be frank, i don’t think Pantone, Toyo, Trumatch or anyone has a palette of such unusual printing inks as the polarised one — at least, not that i’m aware of. he was still testing the limits of printing technology, employing unique application of thermography (now forever relegated to those chintzy “raised-print” business cards you can order at the Office Supply Mega Depot), die cuts, rice paper, colour-coated PVC sleeves (black and silver, most notably) and fluorescent washes.

moreover, he went through an interpretive phase where he exploited the use of an arcane alphanumeric colour code alphabet. it’s what you see on the floppy disk sleeve, the Power, Corruption and Lies sleeve (which appropriated another painting, that of flowers, something not seen on sleeve design since the early 1970s) and the Section 25 material.

then, around the mid-1980s, it became evident that cynicism was showing in his work. most notably, this was reflected with the scotch-on-rocks cover for Electronic’s “Getting Away With It” and the ecstasy capsule silhouettes of New Order’s “Fine Time” singles, both released in 1989. both, i’m certain, were commentaries on the then-peaking “Madchester” music, art and drug scene, taking place most frequently at FAC51, the Haçienda on Palatine Street — home of the Factory Communications live performance space.

anyhow, this is only for personal rumination and re-examination. i didn’t intend to rehash old history. it’d been years since i’d pulled all this material out at once and realised just how much this stuff swayed me to get involved.

i’ve still a lot to think about. i’ve received some deep and telling input from others, even though it wasn’t necessarily solicited. thanks. keep it coming, if anything else comes to mind.