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Private company

Central Station Design

Manchester, England1

Central Station Design is a Mancunian design company founded by Pat Carroll, Karen Jackson, and Matt Carroll. It is usually associated with Factory Records and the Madchester scene of the early 1990s. The company created album cover artwork and posters for Factory artists including The Happy Mondays, Black Grape, and James.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

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Central Station Design is a Mancunian design company founded by Pat Carroll, Karen Jackson, and Matt Carroll. It is usually associated with Factory Records and the Madchester scene of the early 1990s. The company created album cover artwork and posters for Factory artists including The Happy Mondays, Black Grape, and James. Their design for the Happy Mondays' Madchester Rave On E.P. in late 1989 became the iconic logo for the movement. Their work came to represent the movement so clearly that Factory Records owner and radio presenter Tony Wilson said, "The second half of the Factory story is best summed up by the painterly eccentricity of Central Station." Speaking about Manchester in the 1980s and 1990s, Karen Jackson said, "At some point you need an incubator and a home for all this energy, which for us became Factory Records, Dry Bar and The Haçienda. Tony Wilson articulated the value of this energy, people like Kevin Cummins photographed and documented it, the bands soundtracked it, and we tried to paint it."2

The story

In 1990, Central Station members Pat Carroll, Karen Jackson, and Matt Carroll appeared in the documentary TV series Celebration: Madchester — Sound of the North produced by Granada Television.

In 2008, Central Station's cover design for the Happy Mondays' 1988 album Bummed was featured in Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller's installation piece Shaun Ryder's Family Tree, shown at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. "With its close-cropped, acid-pink portrait of Shaun Ryder, designed by Central Station, Deller displays the album alongside a vinyl-text genealogy of Ryder’s family, designed by Scott King."

From Wikipedia’s article on Central Station Design, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Sources

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