Part of me is really uncomfortable with the idea of making this post, which is one of the reasons I’ve put it off for so long. The thing is, it feels a little bit narcissistic, like I’m trying to large myself up for being charitable in public. That’s not really my intention, but being charitable for good causes is good, and the work is nice to have on my blog archives too, so here goes!

I’m sure we’re all aware of the string of disasters that hit the pacific earlier this year. They were particularly devastating to all of us at Hospital Records, as we all have a lot of friends and family from New Zealand and Japan, so naturally everybody at the label wanted to do whatever they could to aid the cause.

First up were CEO Tony Colman and his wife, who is Japanese herself. They held a little fundraiser morning where the Lady Colminator and her friends were selling Japanese food, face painting and generally doing whatever they could to raise money, including selling some ‘Love Japan’ T-shirts and pin badges I designed for them. The pin badges sold so quickly that I didn’t even get one for myself, which was nothing but a good thing, but I did manage to get a T-shirt:

We wanted to do more as a label though, so champion of Hospitality Josh, our events manager, got together with London superclub Fabric and between them masterminded the organisation of ‘Don’t forget’- two nights which took place at the venue last month. Not only was the lineup ridiculously huge, but everybody involved waived their fees, myself included. The artwork I did followed on from the Love Japan tees and pinbadges, with this nice loosely-grid-based design:

The nights were a huge success, with the Hospitality night alone raising over £18,000 for the four nominated charities: Red Cross disaster fund, New Zealand Embassy Christchurch earthquake appeal, Red Dot Relief and The Japan Society Tohuku earthquake relief fund.

As I said above, posting this does feel a bit self-fulfilling, but I am proud to have been a part of these charitable efforts, and I hope the money everybody raised has helped the affected areas to get on the mend!