Secret 7" record sleeve exhibition

Hey Guys! As you may have heard, last week I was involved in the Secret7" charity exhibition. 

My Secret7" Record sleeve illustration.

You didn't hear? You don't know what Secret7" is? You don't know what I'm talking about?

Well, Secret7" is a collection of musicians, artists, record-label officionados, charity-doers and generally nice people who have gotten together to raise money for The Teenage Cancer Trust.

See that pink house? That's Alice Potter's work - she's wonderful.

There's my design in the middle!

Seven bands chose seven songs (one each) and artists were asked to create work responding to the tracks to be made into limited edition 7" record sleeve covers for vinyls of the tracks.

The thing is, the identity of the visual artist and the identity of the track were kept secret through the project, exhibition and sale of the records.  It was only when someone had paid for the vinyl that both were revealed! Ooh hoo hoo!

Tuesday the 17th was the private view/opening night for everyone involved and was held in the Idea Generation gallery in Shoreditch. I headed down from Manchester just to go and join in 

the exhibition shenanigans. 

Some really lovely illustrator friends.

Mark and Jamie of Ohh Deer fame.

Although a lot of the artwork entries were through the competition stage of the event, mine was submitted with Ohh Deer - and so I finally met a lot of the lovely, lovely others in the illustration collective and had drinks, and talks, and generally a ton and a half of good times.

Nicholas Darby's cover - Uni buddy, ex-housemate and Ohh Deer artist.

Ben Farrell and Dave Taylor - Talented graphic designer buddies.

The sale of the vinyls turned out to be a roaring success, with over half of them being snapped up within the first day.  It's not surprising really though, there were some blooming fantastic covers (including a few by the likes of David Shrigley!).

HOWEVER! I still don't know if mine did get sold, I'm hoping it did (if you got it let me know!)- but if not it, along with any others that didn't sell during the exhibition - will be put up on the Teenage Cancer Trust ebay later this week and will be sold on there.  It's all about raising the money for charity anyway, so I'll try not to feel too bad if mine didn't sell there!

This man looks quite cheeky doesn't he? What has he done?!

I hope this was, in fact, interesting for you to read.

If it was, and you're at this point in the blog then I have some good and sort of secret news for you - I've almost finished my second children's book, but the publishers have asked me to do another one and there's the likelihood of another one after that! Yippee! It's good to finally feel a little secure and have some work to keep me motivated.

I hope you're all doing well, keep in touch.

Emmeline