“To mark the hundredth release on Tough Love, the TLV100 catalogue number was gifted not to a landmark artist but to Glaswegian-based designer and Good Press Gallery owner, Matthew Walkerdine. Given the one hundred releases span a 12 year period, the only consistent thread has been the interests of the person who runs the label, for better or worse. To reflect this, Walkerdine took the title Private Index as a banner under which a series of multi-format items could exist - print, sound, textile and type - each with their own unique catalogue number. Like a conventional index, the concept is for Private Index to somehow function as sign or measure of the label.”

Considering the dynamic of a record label, it’s production, the effect of influence and the manifestation of its operations, and firmly positioned in the record label industry. Collaborative in the first instance the project utilised conversational research methodology tracking influence and motivation, the back catalogue of a record label and its dynamics were explored through the subject of its founder.

The project was developed individually to produce limited edition outputs using the language of graphic design. Low-cost production methods and evoking the amateur or ‘fan’ explored the links between music, art and ephemera, fandom and iconography.