Pet Shop Boys Volume: The Complete Visual Record is the definitive retrospective of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe's visual identity — a 560-page chronicle of sleeve art, stage design, costume, photography, and film spanning four decades of pop's most design-literate act.
About This Book
Few pop acts have sustained such rigorous control over their visual output as Pet Shop Boys. This volume catalogues that output in full — year by year, project by project — from Mark Farrow's spare sleeve typography to Es Devlin's theatrical stage architecture, from Derek Jarman's film collaborations to Wolfgang Tillmans' photography. It is as much a document of graphic design and performance history as it is a music biography. Concise commentaries by Chris Heath and Philip Hoare illuminate each project's origins, while a new introduction by Libby Sellers situates the duo within the broader history of design, and a foreword by Jeremy Deller reflects on their enduring cultural impact.
Key Features
- 560 pages of sleeve artworks, video stills, stage set designs, costume drawings, photoshoots, publications, and ephemera including Christmas cards
- Text by Chris Heath, Philip Hoare, and Libby Sellers; foreword by Jeremy Deller
- Collaborations documented include work with Mark Farrow, Wolfgang Tillmans, Martin Parr, Bruce Weber, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Derek Jarman, Scott King, Zaha Hadid, Tom Scutt, and Es Devlin
- Published by Thames and Hudson, 2025 (fortieth anniversary edition)
What You'll Discover
- How Pet Shop Boys developed a cohesive visual language across music, fashion, theatre, and film — and what that process looked like from the inside
- The full scope of their graphic design history, including record sleeve packaging that redefined the visual grammar of pop
- Stage and costume design as conceptual practice, through collaborations with architects and theatre designers including Zaha Hadid and Es Devlin
- Libby Sellers' critical framing of Pet Shop Boys as a significant force in the history of contemporary design — not merely pop culture
About the Author
Chris Heath is a journalist and author who has worked closely with Pet Shop Boys over many years, contributing commentary throughout this volume. Philip Hoare is an award-winning writer whose original introduction to the earlier edition, Pet Shop Boys Catalogue, is accompanied here by Libby Sellers' new critical essay on the duo's place in design history.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 560
- Dimensions: 17 × 24 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780500027479
- Publisher: Thames and Hudson
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Graphic designers, art directors, and design historians interested in pop visual culture; architects and stage designers drawn to Es Devlin and Zaha Hadid's contributions; and anyone serious about the intersection of music, image-making, and contemporary design.