PG Live exhibitor Sharon King-Chai rocks it to celebrate Independent Record Store Day
It was a real tunes-day for publisher Sharon King-Chai at the weekend as her latest vinyl-inspired greeting card range hit her local specialist store to celebrate Independent Record Store Day.
And the illustrator, who is very well known for her work with children’s author Julia Donaldson as well as her own kids’ books, has a personal connection to the music business too as she did the album cover artwork for bands such as Crowded House.
“With Record Store Day on Saturday, 12 April, what better timing to launch a new range of vinyl cards,” Sharon told PG Buzz, “special attention was paid to crafting these, they’re hand-drawn die-cut circles, but are designed to stand up easily.
“And it’s all been particularly close to my heart as I used to design album covers for a range of bands, including Crowded House, Westlife, Skin, and The Subways.”
In advance of the range being on show at PG Live on 3-4 June , Sharon was particularly chuffed that the cards made it into her local framing shop window as soon as she got them back from the printers, as well as being sold in record store Flashback in Crouch End – with neat POS so it’s like flicking through a rack of singles– and the Gift store in the same parade of shops.
Sharon used to work for the Stylorouge design studio with founder and creative director Rob O’Connor and, a decade after Australian rock giants Crowded House split in 1996, they were called in to work on the 10th anniversary edition of the band’s Farewell To The World album from their final free concert on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.
“I was supposed to have been at that gig,” Sharon laughed, “but my friend who I was going with fell ill so I didn’t make it – so, 10 years later, to then be working at the studio who would design the cover for this important concert was beyond exciting.
“After the commemorative album came out the band then announced they were reforming, thus began an exciting collaboration on album artwork with bassist Nick Seymour, who is a very talented artist and was responsible for Crowded House’s artwork. I’d put things together and work with him to achieve his vision. Occasionally throwing in ideas and do single covers when they were on tour.”
And the artist even inspired an album title – when working on what the record company had dubbed Full House, Sharon renamed the LP The Very, Very Best Of Crowded House “as a tongue in cheek reference to the fact they already had a Very Best Of… album out”. Because the band liked it the name stuck, and there were four versions of the cover, released in different territories, to represent their hit Four Seasons In One Day.
She even got a great reference from Crowded House co-founder and singer-songwriter Neil Finn, who said: “Sharon King-Chai is a talented and imaginative designer. She was a fantastic collaborator on the artwork for Crowded House – a truly energetic and positive presence.”
Determined to put all her experience into the new card collection, Sharon used a range of hand-drawn techniques and “created endless brushstrokes to mimic the highlights of the vinyl as I wanted to capture the hand-made feel”, and the designs feature a special high-build varnish to emulate the grooves of the vinyl so have a very satisfying tactile finish.
While the album covers are testament to her design talents, Sharon has no other souvenirs from her brush with the music greats: “Unfortunately, it was back when I was in my 20s and trying so hard to be cool, we never had pics with the bands. Now this seems utterly ridiculous – but it was before iPhones!”
Sharon King-Chai will be among the 200-plus companies exhibiting at PG Live on Tuesday and Wednesday, 3-4 June, at London’s Business Design Centre. To register for the show and see the fabulous exhibitor line-up click here.
