COMPOSING YOUR VINYL GALLERY​
COMPOSING YOUR VINYL GALLERY​
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The question often arises as to how to arrange your Magic Vinyl Displays on your wall. How far apart should they be? Obviously, this is a matter of taste and will be determined by the wall area you are placing the MVDs on. However, there are a few things to consider before you start drilling holes in your wall.
So, you have just received your MVD frames and are wondering how to hang them. Attaching them to your wall is easy, thanks to the magnetic hanging system. But you may be uncertain about how to space the frames—whether to make a single row or have several rows. You may even have to decide whether or not you should repaint the wall in a suitable colour.
Of course, the number of frames you have to hang will help in making a decision about how to hang them. If you have bought our pack of eighteen frames, you could, depending on the width and height of the wall you want to hang them on, opt for the classic three rows of six frames, or they could be arranged in six rows with three frames in each, or even two rows of nine frames.
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It might be more difficult to decide on how far apart the frames should be hung or whether or not you would want to repaint your wall first.
You will find a few examples of different arrangements below. You can get more tips by visiting our online picture gallery.
1. Painting your wall in grey colour tone will improve the character of both the frames and the covers they hold. Here the frames have been hung quite close together to provide a tighter effect.
2. Record producer Christian Geller has hung three rows of quite widely spaced frames against a white background. Note also how the ceiling lights emphasise both the frames and the covers.
3. Three rows of four frames are shown hung on a grey-brown wall in Riga, Latvia.
4. Combining your cover art with other artworks can enhance the impression made by your vinyl record collection. This display is from a house in Hamburg, Germany.
5. How you decide to display your record collection, is, of course, a matter of taste. In this display, covers have been colour-coordinated to give more harmony, especially as these record sleeves also have other features in common.
The most important advice we can give is — experiment!
Have fun!
WELCOME ON BOARD ROCKDOC!
Few people know more about album cover art and vinyl records than Richard Forrest, also known as Rockdoc. On his blog Recordart he generously shares his vast knowledge about rock music, its artistic expressions and its cover art in particular. So, no wonder that we are thrilled to have Richard on board Wag the Wall as our own blogger. You can read his first blogpost here. Read our interview with him first!
Richard Forrest has collected vinyl records and cover art for more than five decades. He has major collections of record cover art by such diverse artists as Andy Warhol, Sir Peter Blake, Klaus Voormann, Damien Hirst and the enigmatic street artist, Banksy. Rockdoc lent his collection of Banksy’s vinyl and CDs to the major Banksy retrospective exhibition in Rome in 2016 and has curated several other exhibitions of record cover art.
How did it all start?
– Well, of course at first it was the music. I was born and raised in London, and was in the centre of Swinging London in the mid to late sixties, even doing some modelling for Paul’s boutique in Carnaby Street! This coincided with the explosion of pop art and pop music. While my days were spent studying, I visited record shops and went to clubs and concerts when “work” was over.
London at the time was the playground for all big bands like The Stones, Beatles, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Doors, Jefferson Airplane, The Who and Pink Floyd (and a whole host of other great bands.) Richard Forrest saw them all.
He also frequented the record shops that imported American albums, as these would appear months before the British releases. He even painted posters for his college dances, heavily influenced by San Francisco psychedelia and started collecting posters.
– I bought records of the artists I liked, provided they had great cover art. I could also be tempted to buy an album with a nice cover without knowing about the music. That way I found a lot of great music but also missed some good ones because I didn’t buy a record with what I considered an ugly cover. No Kinks albums, then! Ha, ha.
From start he has been an Andy Warhol fan and bought The Velvet Underground & Nico album when it came out in 1967 and the Stones’ “Sticky Fingers” in 1971. And that was the embryo of his Andy Warhol cover collection.
– One item is just an item, two items are a collection and so my collection of Andy Warhol covers began and it now includes over 200 covers.
One of 1967’s biggest music events in England was the release of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and the hype in the weeks up to its release on June 1st was massive.
– I bought my first copy the day it came out! I had to find out who all the people were that Peter Blake and Jann Haworth had put on the cover. The following year, I saw The Pentangle in concert at The Saville Theatre and bought their ”Sweet Child" album – also designed by Peter Blake. So, there again was the start of another “collection” albums by a particular artist!
The third collection got started by accident. He read that Klaus Voormann was visiting a local record store and rooted out four or five albums that Voormann had designed: The Beatles ”Revolver” and “Anthology” albums and Manfred Mann’s “As Is.”
– He signed them all. I found out that Klaus is a superb draughtsman, so I had to collect the rest of his cover designs (now over seventy!), hadn’t I? Richard says, with a smile.
He really got into cover design after buying a Cocteau Twins LP in the early eighties and started collecting everything with cover art by Vaughan Oliver in his various guises (23 Envelope with Nigel Grierson and v23 with Chris Bigg).
– At one time I had all the major 4AD rarities and books.
– Then I found Banksy. There aren’t many covers that he actually designed. Blur’s “Think Tank” is probably the best known, but there are many more where his images have been used – and one on which he is supposed to be seen at work –if indeed it is really him. So I started collecting covers with Banksy art.
Four years ago he sold the major part of his collection of records, posters and memorabilia when he moved to a flat in Stockholm, Sweden, keeping only his collections of record cover art.
– I had never thought of collecting records as an investment, but the sale of my collection paid the down payment on our flat! and I’m amazed that collecting record covers has also become a great investment.
Collecting has always been a hobby. He worked as a medical doctor and could combine his interest in music with his job by working at music festivals and collecting autographs. That’s how the moniker “Rockdoc” came about. Otherwise he and his wife had a private practice in Lulea, in northern Sweden. He admits that his interest in design, rock music and album cover art might seem weird for a doctor. His clinic room was decorated with record covers and music posters – hopefully these had a soothing effect on his patients.
Nowadays, he says, he can divide his time between the family and his collection.
– The collection that is what my blog is all about. More specifically, the art by the artists I collect, though occasionally something else might crop up, he says,
You find Rockdoc’s blog here.