After a 4 year hiatus, Secret 7" returned in 2024, this time in aid of War Child – an amazing cause, and one that the world sadly still very much needs.

As ever, the Secret 7" team curated seven songs, each from iconic musicians to produce a limited edition of 700 7" records, all with individually designed sleeves from artists around the world – the secret being you don’t know for certain which song or artist you’re buying until you’ve bought it. The sleeves have been on display at London’s Now Gallery and auctioned off to raise money for this great cause.

Now the bidding is over and the secrets are out, we can reveal our sleeve for: The Specials, We Sell Hope.

The bold design is based on the universal language of selling: the bar code – and shares its stark black and white colour palette with The Specials iconic two-tone graphics.

The large over-sized crop was created from various wood letter characters, including rules, ‘I’s and an upside-down ‘U’ (needs must!). The bar code numbers themselves are a simple letter-number cipher spelling out HOPE, of course.

To finish the sleeve on a hopeful note, the inside is lined with eye-burningly bright neon paper to give a positive glow of things to come.

(Got a taste for Secret 7"? You can see more of our unique designs here)