Level Orange

Design firm Turner Duckworth announced today that its work on the packaging for the latest Metallica album “Death Magnetic” has been nominated for a Grammy award. Yes, a Grammy. For packaging. Turner Duckworth, known for its work with Coca-Cola and Motorola, made some unconventional design choices in the face of traditional music packaging, including the ambiguous/not-so-ambiguous cover image and a rather intrusive die-cut that pays no mind to photos or text in the liner notes.  

I’m not sure what’s more surprising for me; the fact that Metallica is still bothering to put out music or that they turned to a design firm to build and market their “brand” or that there’s even a Grammy award for packaging design. Anyone recall who won last year or the year before that?

A few months ago, I took on a logo project and was tasked with designing an identity for a new venture into “green” upscale housing development. The biggest selling point of these new communities was that they would be constructed in parts of the country that were not necessarily conducive to “eco-friendly” housing, due to climate and/or economical factors.

Since these projects revolved around energy-efficient construction using the latest technologies and building materials, and were to be marketed to young, savvy professional types, two fundamental qualities had to be conveyed: 1) the environmentally sound design and 2) a sense of youthful, almost-nurturing practicality.

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“Barack Obama has won a much deserved and long-fought campaign. Everyone will be talking for weeks about the reason why — political trends, economic slumps, Sarah Palin, etc., but I think we all need to realise that Obama has successfully run the first truly 21st century campaign, and thereby the first branded campaign. That is the principal reason for his victory.” LINK