Secret 7"

Earlier this year, I submitted a design for the 2016 Secret 7" show. The annual show has been running since 2012 and each year takes 7 tracks from 7 musicians/bands and press each one 100 times to 7” vinyl. They then accept submissions from creatives from around the world to interpret the tracks in their own style and 700 sleeve designs are selected and printed, to create 100 unique copies for each of the 7 tracks. These are exhibited and then sold for £50 apiece to raise money for a selected charity.

Of the 7 tracks available, I decided to create a design for Art School by The Jam. Sadly, my illustration did not get selected for the final exhibition, but that doesn't stop me sharing it here...

Secret 7" submissions

I submitted a couple of designs for this year's Secret 7" show. The annual show has been running since 2012 and each year takes 7 tracks from 7 of the best-known musicians around and press each one 100 times to 7” vinyl. They then accept submissions from creatives from around the world to interpret the tracks in their own style and 700 sleeve designs are selected and printed, to create 100 unique copies for each of the 7 tracks. These are exhibited and then sold for £50 apiece to raise money for a selected charity.

Sadly none of my designs were selected to go into the exhibition this year, but with over 4,500 sleeve designs submitted and only 700 sleeves in the final exhibition, there was a lot of competition.

Still, I was pleased with the designs I produced, so at least I can share them here. However, in the spirit of Secret 7", I'm not going to tell you exactly which track they were for, although I will give you the list of the 2015 track selection so you can hopefully work them out for yourselves...

Let Forever Be by The Chemical Brothers
Reflections by Diana Ross & The Supremes
Go by The Maccabees
Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel
Dead Flowers by The Rolling Stones
Digital Witness by St Vincent
Born Slippy by Underworld



The Secret 7" exhibition will be on at Somerset House from 10 April – 3 May, and the 700 copies will go on sale on the 4 May.

Secret 7 @ Pick Me Up 2014

A few weeks ago I went along to the Pick Me Up 2014 at Somerset House. Billed as "the UK’s original contemporary graphic arts festival", I thought that the selection of international artists included in the main exhibition was a lot stronger than in recent years and had a good time at the show. The day I was there, there was a workshop with Secret 7 inviting people to create a record sleeve design based on a selection of seven songs. I decided to join in and produced a sleeve for Ghost Town by The Specials...

Secret 7" competiton

Phew! That was a busy few hours of drawing!!

A while ago, I saw a competition on the Talenthouse website to design artwork for the band CSS. I've been a fan of CSS for ages, and have seen them play Live a few times, so this sounded like something I'd like to do! And then I forgot all about it. Until I noticed a couple of tweets and facebook posts from friends saying that they had entered the competition. I still wanted to take part, but was busy with a few other things, and so time passed...

Today was the deadline for entries, and I was working at the gallery during the day so when I got home, I FINALLY got around to working on my entry for the competition, and hurried to get it done before the deadline...

Fortunately, on the bus to work this morning I was listening to the selected song – City Grrrl by CSS – on my iPod and came up with an idea, so I was good to go! Listening to the lyrics of the song, I kept coming back to the idea of transformation and the desire to "live the life I didn't have yet" in New York City, and the iconic symbol of freedom: the Statue of Liberty (I had also watched Ghostbusters 2 recently...).

The band themselves will be picking the winning designs to be printed on a Secret 7" vinyl sleeve and exhibited in East London for Record Store Day on the 21 April, but if you like my design, you can also vote for my entry over on the Talenthouse website. Voting starts tomorrow (20 January) until the 26 January, and you can view my entry on their site and cast your vote here:
http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/a025b5d123838fcb866e34472764626d/379