Rock Paper Show Event - Chicago Release Party

The latest in the Rock Paper Show release events across the country is this week at Chicago’s Renegade Handmade. Come join us to celebrate, get your own copy and have it signed by a multitude of the talented artists and designers in town for Flatstock 26 (at Pitchfork).

Event Details:
July 15th
Renegade Handmade
1924 W Division Street, Chicago, IL
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

SSD at Pitchfork

While in Chiacgo we’ll be attending Pitchfork Music Festival, where we’ll be on site selling merchandise July 16th-18th . We’ll have our own booth there, stocked with deluxe editions of Rock Paper Show, ReFRAMEs for all the posters you buy at Flatstock, and a selection of our favorite SSD apparel, as well as a few surprises, all with special weekend discounts.

Pitchfork Music Festival Details:
July 16th-18th
Union Park 1501 W Randolph St, Chicago, IL

New Musician as Designer T-Shirt - Nick Zinner

If you haven’t yet, make sure to check out the latest installment in our Musician as Designer series. The new t-shirt, printed on organic Alternative Apparel garments, features Nick Zinner as designer. Zinner, who lives in New York City, is a founding member of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Head Wound City, as well as an accomplished photographer. There are only 84 pieces in this (very) limited edition, so be sure to get one before they’re out.

Stay Tuned for these Upcoming Projects at SSD:

The 10th edition of our Artist Music Journals series is arriving shortly, featuring designer Brian Roettinger. Founder of the design studio/record label Hand Held Heart, Roettinger has received the highest praises for his album art and design for No Age and Liars. Speaking of No Age, Brian’s installment in the ongoing series is extra-special - the book comes with a one-sided 10″ record, featuring 3 exclusive tracks from No Age and Brian, who collaborated to present the musical accompaniment to Brian’s visual journal. Pre-orders will be available within the next 3 weeks.

We’re also really excited to start production this week on Touchable Sound: A Collection of 7-inch Records from the USA. The upcoming book features over 300 records from the past 25 years, essays from figures as talented and diverse as Justin Pearson (Three One G / Locust), Sam McPheeters (Vermiform / Born Against), Tom Hazelmyer (Amphetamine Reptile), Kristin Thompson (Simple Machines), and more, as well an introduction by Henry H. Owings (Chunklet Magazine). Each record was photographed, researched, and documented in this homage to labor intensive, artistically driven, exceptionally packaged 7’s, which continue to influence and define modern record packaging design.

Last but not least, stay on the look out for our 2010 Collection. It will feature five talented designers and ten amazing bands. The first release will feature Animal Collective and Atlas Sound, as designed by the talented Rob Carmichael/Seen Studio, as well as Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Pantha du Prince, as designed by the incredible Hisham Bharoocha. More info and pre-orders coming soon. In the meantime, stock up on the remaining designs from the 2009 Collection, all at 40% off.

We recently completed the photo shoot for one of our upcoming books, Touchable Sound: Twenty Years of 7″ Record Design & Packaging. Shot by Ian Baguskus, the shoot comprised of shooting over 540 records which will be featured in the book.

The photo featured in this post, which is a shoot outtake, features stacks of records comprising roughly 85% of the records that will be in the book. The stacks contain no less than 11 and no more than 34 records each. Musically speaking the records are genre agnostic, and focus on DIY modes of production with respect to the overall packaging design (not just the cover art, but the totality of the packaging). The records selected are a diverse representation of the various aesthetics, approaches, and values of the independent music community over the past 20 years.

A huge THANK YOU to all the people who sent in records, offered suggestions, and supplied contact information.  We simply could not have gotten this far without your help.

Curated by Mike Treff, Brian Roettinger and Diego Hadis, designed by Brian Roettinger, and with essay contributions from Henry Owings, Justin Pearson, Sam McPheeters and more, Touchable Sound will be out in 2010.

We are in the process of wrapping up one of our first two book releases, tentatively titled Touchable Sound: Twenty Years of 7” Record Design.

For our research, we’re trying to compile lists of people’s suggestions of the best DIY 7″s, in terms of design and packaging, as this is NOT about music or nostalgia. We’re looking for lists of people’s twenty (or more) best 7″s from roughly 1986 through 2006. Records where either the packaging is handmade or you can see the hand of the creators in the work (even in something that wasn’t handmade, but extra work was put into its creation—like, say, the Black Dice 7″/book on 31G). We’re very interested in the role local communities and record collecting had on the design, and therefore are interested in hearing about stuff that would definitely be off our radar—examples of local records that never really got much distribution, tour version records, non-hardcore/punk/indie records (we do not want to limit ourselves by genre), foreign releases, etc. It doesn’t have to be a super formal list, we just want to make sure that we’ve got all the really good stuff covered, and you all know more than we could possibly research on our own.

Please send lists (with photos, if possible), noting: band, label, city or region label is from, and details you think we need to know about the design to: touchablesound@soundscreendesign.com.

Thank you very much, your help is invaluable, and we hope you’ll enjoy digging in your crates as much as we’re going to enjoy seeing what you’ve got.

Personalization in record packaging is one thing. Personalization on the actual record, via an etching, is something entirely different. While doing research for SSD004, we came across this example of a custom etching for each customer.

Label: Hand Held Heart
Catalog Number: hhh.08
Record: Orchid / The Red Scare, Split 7″
Pressing Information: 1st pressing (2000 black vinyl, gold labels) / 2nd pressing (1000 black vinyl, yellow labels)
Availability: Out of Print

The version shown below was for mail-order only. 108 were pressed as two one sided 7″s. Each record was hand etched on the “B” side with the name of the recipient.

custom etching

accompanying letter