Secret 7” returns for 2024, with an open call for sleeve designs

Secret 7” – the anonymous charity record sale – is returning for 2024. Raising money for the charity War Child, the project sees artists, illustrators and designers create sleeve artworks for seven tracks from seven different musical artists – resulting in unique, one-of-a-kind and collectable vinyls. Creatives are selected through an open call for submissions (which is now open) with those selected ranging from household names to newcomers. Though there is one twist, the identity of the artist behind each sleeve isn’t revealed until it’s sold.

Previously, the original Secret 7” ran for seven years before announcing its final show in 2020. It raised over £500,000 for various charities over this time – including Mind, Help Refugees and War Child – and saw the likes of Paul Smith, Yoko Ono, David Shrigley, Anish Kapoor, Dinos Chapman, Peter Blake, Ragnar Kjartansson, and Es Devlin submit sleeves. In 2018 it also collaborated with DIA studio and Zach Liebermann to create Speak Your Mind, a web-based generative type application that allowed users to create their own unique posters, which were then printed and displayed at the exhibition.

This time, the seven tracks selected to receive their custom cover are Aurora’s A Different Kind of Human, Celeste’s Stop This Flame, Hozier’s Swan Upon Leda, Siouxsie & The Banshees’s Lullaby, Paul McCartney’s Pipes of Peace, The Chemical Brothers’ Skipping Like a Stone and The Specials’ We Sell Hope. For each of the seven artists only 100 of the records will be created, all 700 of which will be featured in a free exhibition at the NOW Gallery on London’s Greenwich Peninsula from 2 to 17 March 2024, after which the online auction will take place. NOW Gallery and Greenwich Peninsula Senior Cultural Projects Manager Kaia Charles says that the space is looking forward to supporting War Child “through the creative synergy of art and music”.

You can now submit your sleeve artworks here. Submissions are open until 9 January 2024.