Secret 7 artwork by Josiah Craven

Link: Josiah Craven
Link: Secret 7

This year's outstanding Secret 7 project featured contributions from Yoko Ono, Peter Blake, David Shrigley, Paul Smith and Erik Spiekermann alongside Plastic Circles favourites including Give Up Art, Optigram, La Boca and HORT. However, the initiative has also historically acted as a great showcase of upcoming talent.

One such fresh creative is Josiah Craven - a student on Leeds College of Art's BA (Hons) Graphic Design course - who managed to sneak seven of his artworks included within Secret 7's recent exhibition at Somerset House. That's one for every included track. Working as a set while also reflecting qualities particular to the individual records, his 7" single designs couple type-based constructions with art-directed photographic elements to culminate in a series of contemporary music/design artefacts. Sold off in aid of the Nordoff Robbins charity, the set has since been split but have been collected here for posterity.

Jlin - Dark Energy artwork by Spencer Shakespeare and Fabian Harb

Link: Planet Mu
Link: Knives
Link: Dinamo

With A&R and art direction by Spencer Shakespeare's and Jamie 'Kuedo' Teasdale's KNIVES imprint/creative agency (although unleashed via the always forward-thinking Planet Mu), Jlin's Dark Energy long-player takes both footwork and record artwork seriously. The finished package also benefits from sizeable input from Fabian Harb of, type foundry, Dinamo and effectively will whet appetites for what's to come from a new type of collaborative practice. 

As Teasdale notes in an interview with FACT: 

"From the outset, we both knew that the label had to offer something individual in terms of validating its existence. Due to our collective interests and backgrounds, we also knew that this would somehow encompass visual art, graphic design and a collaborative working process."

'Cargaa 1 EP' by HelloMe

Link: HelloMe 
Link: Warp 

The first of three Cargaa EPs that represents emerging Lisbon talent is released by Warp next week. Available as as a 12" and download, artwork comes courtesy of Berlin's HelloMe: furthering - as the bottom images suggest - the palette and clean aesthetic of their refresh of Warp's website. Although this time, coupling that Designers Republic 2.0 style with some more expressively daubed detailing.

Michael and Mattis - 'Hoes Before Bros' artwork by Cordova-Canillas

Link: Cordova-Canillas
Link: Hivern Discs

Debut Michael and Mattis EP for the Hivern label comes with a sleeve art directed by Barcelona's Cordova-Canillas. A great project in its own right but even more impressive when you see how this artwork for the NewYork/Oslo duo is within the context of a broad yet cohesive portfolio that also includes some great editorial, digital and photography work.

Kate Moross - Make Your Own Luck

Link: Kate Moross
Link: Studio Moross
Link: Prestel Publishing

Been excited about this since Kate Moross first mentioned it and now her first proper book-shaped round-up of occasionally triangle-obsessed work tops the graphic design pre-order list at Amazon. Although much more than a graphic designer, it also features her illustration output whilst simultaneously demonstrating advanced abilities as an entrepreneur and all-round inspiration. There's also a foreword by Neville Brody but Kate's own overview of her creative process already makes this an essential purchase.

Amazon link: Make Your Own Luck: A DIY Attitude to Graphic Design and Illustration

Luke Vibert's Nuggets Vol. 3 by Non-Format

Link: Non-Format
Link: Lo Recordings

Boasting rare oddities from the Bruton Music label, Luke Vibert's third journey through the archives of lost synth-heavy library music is graced with some well crafted artwork from Non-Format.

Now up on their updated website (alongside their rightly lauded design for Black Devil Disco Club's Black Moon White Sun album), Kjell Ekhorn and Jon Forss have offered up the depiction of a curious object that simultaneously feels both modern and antique. The diagonals of its cryptic markings are carried through on the release's text with track titles and credits dropped into a multi-directional grid that similarly plays with another dichotomy: that of order and chaos.

 

Debukas - I Am Machinery by Richard Robinson

Link: Richard Robinson
Link: Debukas
Link: 2020Vision

Available now is the Debukas album I Am Machinery on 2020 Vision. As already featured in full on the wonderful Collate, it incorporates a great custom typeface by the masterful Richard Robinson (that seemingly follows on rather nicely from his contemporary stencil-based re-design for Dummy).

Various Artists - Interpretations on F.C. Judd by Optigram

Link: Optigram
Link: Public Information

Coming after last year's 35 track F.C. Judd collection, Electronics Without Tears, the Public Information label has invited Chris Carter, Perc, Pye Corner Audio, Holly Herndon, Mordant Music and more to reconfigure selected sounds from his extensive archive. Optigram has, in turn, delivered slick monochrome artwork to house crisp white vinyl. Limited edition with 500 copies worldwide plus substantially less exclusive/sexy digital versions.

Coma - In Technicolor artwork by Siggi Eggertsson

Link: Siggi Eggertsson
Link: Coma
Link: Kompakt

Mount Kimbie - Cold Spring Fault Less Youth artwork by Leif Podhajsky

Link: Leif Podhajsky
Link: Mount Kimbie
Link: Warp

With that amazing Horrors box set recently unveiled plus an archive of visual material for names like Foals, Bonobo and Tame Impala, Aussie artist Leif Podhajsky's kaleidoscopic view of the world is well established. However his latest imagery for Mount Kimbie's upcoming long-player takes a more restrained graphic, almost mid-century approach yet it simultaneously appears to nod towards Matisse's collage work and, pioneer of the album cover, Alex Steinweiss. So while Podhajsky's more psychedelic offerings will continue to thrill, it's great to see the arrival of this other, cleaner but equally intriguing aesthetic.

Objekt/Cosmin TRG - 'Shuttered/Auster' by Give Up Art and Shaun Bloodworth

Link: Give Up Art
Link: Shaun Bloodworth
Link: The Green Series
Link: Bleep.com

The second in the Bleep.com co-curated Green Series is another highly collectable split release. Again boasting a die-cut, embossed and hand-stamped outer sleeve (with internal photography by Shaun Bloodworth), this one features music from the Berlin-based Objekt and Romania's Cosmin TRG (whose second album will be out in April via 50 Weapons).

The run of deluxe packages - complete with signed colour art prints - is already spoken for. The (still beautiful) standard version can currently be pre-ordered. Be quick though. Only 500 copies worldwide and released next week.

The Draughtsman - '1694 EP' artwork by Alex Egan

Link: Alex Egan

Renaissance man or control freak? Whatever, Alex Egan's release as The Draughtsman comes complete with artwork by the producer. Of course, Egan is more than adept at producing tasty music-oriented design with his output gracing labels including Phantasy Sound. However the polymath's double (green) vinyl offering is particularly special.

Evidently a homage to Peter Greenaway's The Draughtman's Contract, its depiction of ordered nature plays against some more haphazard type. With remixes from Roman Flügel, Cosmo Vitelli and Tim Paris, it's available to purchase from Phonica.

DJ Rashad - 'Rollin' artwork by Optigram

Link: Optigram 
Link: Alex Trochut
Link: Hyperdub

Another sleeve from Manuel Sepulveda of Optigram for the Hyperdub label. This time it's a visualisation for an upcoming four track EP by DJ Rashad: a name synonymous with Chicago's footwork sound. Not that this is completely new territory for Sepulveda (he previously designed an album cover for, scene stalwart, Traxman on Planet Mu) but it is representative of Hyperdub's continued diversification.

This one sees the designer creating the sort of dark textures that typified Ikonika's 2010 album while also making use of a bold typeface created by Alex Trochut.

Getz/Andy Pain & Z Connection - 'The Wicker Man/Dive Ruv' artwork by Pyramid Studio

Link: Pyramid Studio

12" artwork for, Russian label, Interactive Music by Pyramid Studio's João Miguel Chaves. Nice.