Secret 7"
This year I was very lucky to have a piece of artwork included in the legendary Secret7" exhibition and online charity auction. There were 700 pieces of artwork in total included in the exhibition at Now Gallery in London, each displayed and auctioned off anonymously in order to raise funds for Help Refugees. This year there were 7 tracks to choose from, with 100 designs for each track making it into the exhibition and auction.
With the exhibition and auctions now finished I can share my submission, inspired by the brilliant 'Harmony Hall' by Vampire Weekend.
When the song was originally released my good friend @trevorphillips observed that it had a late 80s 'baggy' feel as we'd loved all that time ago from The Happy Mondays, the Stone Roses and The Charlatans. So when I saw that Harmony Hall was a choice for the Secret 7" exhibition I looked to that era for inspiration, jumping into an idea of using the Happy Mondays 'Pills n' Thrills and Bellyaches' cover artwork as the basis for my design. I picked the key lyric from Harmony Hall, 'I don't wanna live like this, but I don't wanna die' which I think sums up a lot of people's feelings over recent years, and in 2020 more than ever!
In my research I found a great episode of the Song Exploder podcast with Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend doing a breakdown of Harmony Hall, including the song structure and creative process, but also about the history of what a 'harmony hall' was and what it can mean in society. This lead to me filling the sleeve artwork with symbols, phrases and imagery relating to the world we live in, the politics, the businesses and the culture.
