Secret 7" is back and includes a web-based expressive typographic artwork generator

Date
7 June 2018

Secret 7”, everyone’s favourite exhibition that brings the worlds of music, art and design together, is back for its sixth year. Opening tomorrow (8 June) at The Jetty in Greenwich Peninsula’s Summer Hub, the exhibition will be open until 23 June.

Starting with seven tracks from seven of the best-known musicians, Secret 7” presses each one 100 times to 7” vinyls. It then invites creatives from around the world to interpret each track, resulting in 700 unique sleeves which, after being exhibited, are sold for £50 each. This year the tracks interpreted are by Jeff Buckley, The Clash, Eurythmics, Jimi Hendrix, London Grammar, Manic Street Preachers and Primal Scream. The artists and designers on the other end include Jeremy Deller, Sir Anish Kapoor and Sir Paul Smith with plenty of It’s Nice That faves such as Chris (Simpson’s artist), Kyle Platts and Julian Glander also making their own 7”.

On Sunday 24 June at 10 am, every record will go on sale, however, as always, the identity of each sleeve’s designer remains closely guarded until in the buyer’s hands. All profits from the sales will go to mental health charity Mind.

In celebration of this year’s partnership with Mind, Secret 7” has also partnered with Squarespace to launch Speak Your Mind. A collaboration between DIA Studio and Zach Lieberman, Speak Your Mind is a web-based generative expressive type application that allows users to create their own unique posters to be printed and displayed at the exhibition.

First, users select an emotion based on the seven featured in the musical tracks. Once selected, users can distort and customise their generative typographic artwork using a series of variables. By inverting the colours or changing the “look” users can then alter the artwork even further by interacting with a series of sliders that controls factors like leading, speed and scale.

For each generative artwork shared on social media, Squarespace will donate £1 to Mind up to an amount of £4000.

Above

DIA, Zach Lieberman and Squarespace for Secret 7"

Above

DIA, Zach Lieberman and Squarespace for Secret 7"

Above

DIA, Zach Lieberman and Squarespace for Secret 7"

Above

DIA, Zach Lieberman and Squarespace for Secret 7"

Above

DIA, Zach Lieberman and Squarespace for Secret 7"

Share Article

Further Info

About the Author

Ruby Boddington

Ruby joined the It’s Nice That team as an editorial assistant in September 2017 after graduating from the Graphic Communication Design course at Central Saint Martins. In April 2018, she became a staff writer and in August 2019, she was made associate editor.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.