PSB DESIGNING par Alex Camarillo
Alex Camarillo explore en détail la créativité faite autour des albums et singles des Pet Shop Boys au cours de leur longue carrière ,la personnalisation des différents formats et la participation d'artistes très talentueux , photographes, créateurs de costumes et graphistes tels que Mark Farrow ,Eric Watson ,David Fielding et Jeffrey Bryant parmi ceux qui ont contribué au design des Pet Shop Boys comme une icône visuelle de la culture pop.
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“Left to my own devices” was launched in November 1988 as the third single of “Introspective”, the third studio album of PetShopBoys. The artwork was designed by Mark Farrow with photos taken by Michael Roberts referencing the work of artists like Marcel Duchamp, who famously set a bicycle wheel on a stool. The 7” sleeve featured Neil & Chris posing with medieval armours with a suspended bicycle wheel overhead in a surrealist overtone. Farrow hated the photos which he thought were really contrived and pretentious, so he decided to cover them up with a yellow Outer Sleeve. This sleeve mimicked an American map he’d bought that came in a yellow envelope, so he used that idea with type for the layout. The UK 7” Single included “Left to my own devices” in a radio version and the B Side “The sound of the atom splitting”; the Cassette Single included the same two tracks plus “Left To My Own Devices (The Disco Mix)”, same version included in the “Introspective” album.
The British release on 12” featured a different photo than the 7” showing Neil seated on a dentist chair and Chris standing besides him with a hat and glasses, with wearing black suits and keeping the bicycle wheel overhead along with a clock and a hat rack; there was also a LimitedEdition with the yellow Outer Sleeve. The promotional 12” Single used the same layout as the outer sleeve but using black background with white type instead of yellow. The release on CD used the exact same artwork as the 7” Single and along with the 12” included the same three tracks as the Cassette Single. A second 12” Remix Single was planned -but never released- including the ‘Royal Piano Mix’ by Frankie Knuckles, version that appear only in a very rare promotional CDr. Later on 2 additional remixes by Shep Pettibone were released in the American triple-vinyl “Introspective Club Mixes”. For the international releases, some outstanding editions include the Japanese promotional 7” that showed the same cover as the UK 12” single but including the Japanese characters and the 3” CD released in snap-pack with the same cover; another 3” CD was released in Germany but using the cover of the UK 7” Single.