Pulsar Graph 3

Handmade original drawing

title: Breaking News
artist: Daniel Markides
year: 2024
size: A3 (297 mm x 420 mm)
medium: Black and blue ink on acid free 300 gsm Fabriano paper

Shipped flat.
Frame not included.

A bit of background:
The iconic cover of 'Unknown Pleasures' (1979), the debut album by Joy Division, features a black-and-white graph that has become one of the most recognizable designs in music history. The image represents a series of stacked, pulsar data visualizations based on the first detected radio signals from a pulsar (PSR B1919+21) discovered in 1967 by astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell and her team.

The graph originally appeared in the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy, published in 1977, and shows the intensity of the radio waves as pulses, creating a waveform pattern. Peter Saville, the album’s graphic designer, adapted the image for the cover. It was suggested by band member Bernard Sumner, who had seen it in an encyclopedia.

Saville chose to invert the original black-on-white image into white-on-black, aligning it with the minimalist and brooding aesthetic of Joy Division's music. The image's stark, haunting simplicity complements the album's dark, introspective themes, and it has since become a cultural icon beyond the music world, appearing on posters, clothing, and more.