Secret 7" 2024 Charity record sleeve design

The annual Secret 7" charity event had taken a break, but they decided to return for 2024. Combining music and art for charitable causes, 7 well-known tracks are selected and 100 of each are pressed to 7" vinyl. An open invite to the world to create their own interpretation of a track for the sleeve design follows. 700 submissions are subsequently selected with the artworks to be exhibited, and auctioned by online art platform Peggy, as one-off pieces for charity. Launched in 2012 by Kevin King and Jordan Stokes, to date the event has sold 4,900 unique records and raised over £500,000 for charitable causes.

What's the big secret?
The purchaser is unaware of who designed the sleeve or the track enclosed until the deal is complete.

For 2024 the event was in aid of the charity War Child and the exhibition was hosted at NOW Gallery, Greenwich Peninsula, London.

Secret 7" attracts some of biggest names within and outside the creative industry. Amongst the 700 records for this year was artwork from Tacita Dean / Sir Paul Smith / Rankin / Cho Hui-chin / Jamie Hewlett / Tom Dixon / Ragnar Kjartansson / Stanley Donwood / Helen Beard / Sue Webster / Bob & Roberta Smith / Anthony Lister / Pure Evil / Humphrey Ocean / Morag Myerscough / Kate Gibb / Jean Julien / Stuart Semple / Anthony Burrill / Babak Ganjei / Rob Ryan / Gregor Hildebrandt.

For 2020 the track options were –
Aurora – A Different Kind of Human / Celeste – Stop This Flame / Hozier – Swan Upon Leda / Paul McCartney – Pipes of Peace / Siouxsie & The Banshees – Lullaby / The Chemical Brothers [Feat. Beck] – Skipping Like A Stone / The Specials – We Sell Hope

Thousands of submissions were received from all over the world, so I was thrilled to be selected once again having previously featured in 2015 / 2016 and 2020. With the chosen charity War Child in mind, I selected the track – Pipes of Peace – by Paul McCartney. I remember this release making a big impact on me as a child with the moving music video portraying the Christmas truce football match of the first World War. Numerous submissions would be focused on peace from conflict, so I decided to take a different approach. Whilst we must strive to make peace with each other, we must also make peace with our planet.