Subculture of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures Artwork

Last month, the Washington Post published a fascinating article that dives into the history of Joy Division’s iconic Unknown Pleasures artwork that seems to have cultivated it’s own subculture independent of the album.

Some fun facts about the artwork:

It’s a diagram of a series of pulse waves based on “a series of radio frequency periods from the first pulsar discovered.”
It was designed by 22 year old Peter Saville, fresh out of college.
The band’s name was intentionally left off the cover of the album. “We were all the age that bought records, and you don’t need the title. It’s patronizing to its audience.”
The image has been appropriated by all manner of pop culture, from Sex and the City to Ready Player One to Mickey Mouse. Saville concedes that “over the last 20 years it has, to a certain extent, become gratuitous and tedious and insincere.”