Last night the graphic design legend Peter Saville answered questions from Adrian Shaughnessy about his career. The lecture was part of D&AD’s annual President’s Lectures, and yesterday’s event was staged in front of a packed audience at the Logan Hall lecture theatre at in The Institute of Education in London. As well as showing examples of his work spanning over 30 years, Saville’s talk was both entertaining and revealing. Here are a few of the insightful as well as ‘tongue in cheek’ quotes from the talk.

On deciding to study graphic design
- “I had no idea that doing what I liked could get me a job.”

On designing the Joy Division’s debut album cover, Unknown Pleasures
- “I didn’t know where to put the type, so I didn’t put it on at all.”
- “I made the cover I wanted to have.”

On his job as art director of DinDisc, a Virgin Records label
- “I moved [from Manchester] to London and suddenly met ‘the industry’. It was a big shock to me.”
- “I was locked in the office for two days because I didn’t see the urgency of a deadline.”

On album covers
- “I became a record cover designer – that is not real graphic design.”
- “An album cover is a blank canvas for somebody’s visual fantasy. A surrogate art form for people who don’t know anything about art.”
- “You should not be designing covers by the time you are 30, it’s not appropriate.”

On moving on to Pentagram
- “3 D&AD Awards and I didn’t know how to design a letterhead.”
- “I was tolerated for 2 years. Even Alan Fletcher told me it wasn’t graphic design.”
- “What I learnt there has come to me every working day since then. There is no substitute for learning from people with so much experience and wisdom.”

On his current role for Manchester
- “Officially I am the Creative director of the city of Manchester. I don’t believe there has been another.”

On the Peter Saville legend
- “I’ve never deliberately set out to create that. I’ve just always managed to get away with doing what I wanted to do… in a very public domain.”

On working for Kate Moss
-”I like Kate. And it flattered my ego that Kate Moss wanted me.”

On what inspires him
- “What matters. It matters to me that my home City [Manchester] makes the
most of itself – and that inspires me.”