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.