We speak to Jamie McCathie, independent creative director to take us behind the scene of Metallica’s 72 Seasons album cover

Tell us something about yourself: who you are, what's your story, and where your vision for the world of design lies.

I grew up in Bristol, UK. An amazing city filled with art (Banksy), music (Portishead, Tricky, Massive Attack) and amazing skate culture (50-50/Danny Wainwright). It’s always been kind of an alternative, full of weirdos and I love it. I studied at Somerset College of Art and landed a dream job in London at a small, boutique design agency, Turner Duckworth back in 2004. I eventually got a transfer and moved to San Francisco California, another city filled with amazing culture, music and plenty more weirdos.

I spent the last 11 years heading up creative teams on brands as diverse as Makers Mark, Metallica, Tillamook and Brawny. I spent a year on loan, moonlighting as Head of Design and Creativity for one of my long-standing clients, Beam Suntory, and last October left my role as Executive Creative Director to see what kind of trouble I could do as an independent Creative. Since then, I have built an incredible network of clients, and collaborators; worked on all sorts of brands and projects and co-directed a Metallica album/brand campaign. It’s been quite a year.

I am currently in the process of setting up my creative company ‘General LLC’, a partnership between myself and Daniel D’arcy - one of the smartest creative thinkers I know. We believe in and love developing brands above all else. Problem-solving is our passion, and our broad thinking helps us develop the most creative, least expected answers. With this venture, we hope to broaden the type of projects and work we do far beyond traditional graphic design. Our creative company will stay small, collaborating with the right contractors for every client and project. This is the future of creativity. Nimble, smart, flexible, open-minded and brave.

You’ve had over 17 successful years with TurnerDuckworth. How has your time with the agency prepared you to be an independent creative director?

I feel lucky to have had such an amazing career thus far at such a prestigious agency. When people would ask me how I stayed at one job so long I would tell them two things. #1 The UK and the US are very different places, and so was our studios. Similar ethos, but the work, culture, clients and people felt so different I always felt like I worked at two different agencies. #2 I worked on an insanely diverse range of clients/projects, it kept my career fresh.

The week after I designed the first Metallica album I was working on a nappy/diaper cream brand called Desitin. I worked on Waitrose, Superdrug, Homebase, Virgin Airlines, Conte A Paris, Liz Earle, D&AD, Royal Mail, The Glenlivet, John Smiths, and Kettle Chips, amongst many others, and that was just the first 6 years. I was also fortunate to work with some incredible artists, typographers, illustrators, photographers, and copywriters, and they really informed how I approach projects today.

My job is to steer creative and bring in the best of the best to execute the vision. I ‘could’ spend time illustrating or drawing logos - but people like the late John Geary (Johnny Walker icon, Levi’s two-horse-pull) exist, and you’d be insane not to work with and learn from them. Developing ideas with folks that have different skill sets, thoughts and ideas from me is what makes me tick as a creative. That and solving problems, the hustle and the hunt for better drive me. And I learnt from Bruce Duckworth & David Turner, some of our industry's finest thinkers.

Sarah Moffat & Joanne Chan later in my career were amazing mentors, helping me become more confident in my ability to challenge the status quo and get clients to see the excitement in the unknown. I've watched TD grow from 15 to 150, and spent the last few years yearning for that small agency feel. My team on Beam were small and mighty, we ran it like a misfit crew that challenged what it meant to be a ‘design agency’, still developing packaging and VIS but also creating brand strategy & campaigns, TV spots, experiential events and managing artist collaborations. I told clients the damn truth, never sugarcoating anything and we shared an immense respect. It felt exciting, I knew I needed more of it, so it was time.

All in all, I feel beyond ready for this next chapter.

Congratulations on the launch of Metallica's 72 Seasons! We are big fans of the work. Can you walk us through your thoughts on the loud yellow, bold typography, broken toys, the unboxing experience, and the die-cut?

While the album package for 72 seasons is the hero of this conversation, the best way to summarize this project overall is the immense amount of collaboration between the core creative team and every artist that worked on the campaign. Myself, David Turner and Ian Conklin developed the album's visuals, concepts and ideas. Each of us contributed the elements you mentioned that ladder up to the visually rich, and layered album experience. Lars was adamant EVERYTHING in this campaign had to sing from the same song sheet, so he put extra pressure on us to develop and oversee everything. We hired talented people to execute our vision.

Photographer Stan Musilek was assigned the cover art. David had worked with him on previous Metallica projects, and we knew we wanted the cover to look precise, and elegant and Stan’s fashion edge was perfect. He had Mark Welsh take care of burning and fucking up all of the items outside Stan’s studio on the street in SF. The amount of care that went into this process was masterful. We knew we wanted fans to look at the band in a different light, so discovering photographer Lee Jeffries was serendipity. His portrait work, in particular of homeless individuals captures the most raw, honest, and beautiful moments in humanity.

This approach was so different from a standard band shoot, it made everybody excited to push for this new side of Metallica across all mediums. When I put forward Director Tim Saccenti to do the music video for Lux, it was coming from a place of challenging the band and its fans. His work has a non-traditional, modern art vibe that feels like it’s lightyears from your average metal band. It turned out so amazingly, he was hired for the rest of the album videos. I love the way we were able to tie together the videos and the rest of the artwork - the screaming suicide video style and the concept really fell out of a conversation me and Tim had about Lee Jefferies portraits.

Everybody from the web team at Metallica, Tony and the crew that worked on all of the tour merchandise, and Dan who creates the stage design and video content, worked together. This was a truly expansive brand world that we were able to direct and create. Personal highlight: I got to work with Lars on defining the colour for his custom Tama kit.

Hearing the name ‘Lars’ resonated with you, and you immediately recognised the opportunity as a young designer. Can you tell us about your experience working on your first Metallica project? We hear you’re a fan and the reason behind bringing back the band's logo.

I think back now, and the most important thing is that I was able to work in an area of culture that I love, helping a band develop their brand was huge, and I hope I get to do this kind of work for more artists/musicians. James Hetfield designed the iconic logo for the band 40 years ago and bringing it back felt like the biggest no-brainer ever. We created a ‘visual theme’ inspired by the album title and that iconic logo which went on to win tons of awards (including a Grammy for design), and proved to me that I can work on the kind of brands I truly care about.

Turner Duckworth x Metallica, Branding a Band

Did any of the songs inspire the design of the album?

Not so much the music, but the lyrics, theme and meaning behind the album had a huge impact. 72 Seasons is about the impact of someone’s first 18 years. The term ‘prisoner of Childhood’ came up in our briefing call and this phrase went on to inspire the prisoner theme depicted through the crib and the die-cut ‘bars’. I remember David Turner had a sketch he did for the ‘Lux Æterna’ single that was just a simple bright yellow background and the words typed small in the middle. The theme of dark/light so clearly came across in this song, the name being almost the most uplifting and optimistic.

Ian and I loved this modern use of colour for the band and we quickly integrated it into the concept and ideas we had, in particular the crib image that at the time was on white and was kinda ‘missing something’. Hetfield instantly loved it, I remember his reaction, a “wow” followed by a chuckle. Those are the reactions every creative dream of, we knew we were on to something. The colour became such a powerful tool to tie the campaign together, it’s eye-catching and so different from the heavy metal genre. I loved seeing it in a record store next to every other album, it zings.

What was it like to work in close collaboration with the band? How did they respond to this bold idea?

The band were amazing. So engaged, excited and collaborative. Being creatives themselves, I truly felt like they enjoyed the daunting process as much as we did - something I think a lot of clients can struggle with. Our meetings felt more like design crits than presentations. None of the formality associated with corporate culture, this is a fucking metal band! Having so many ‘clients’ to persuade and inspire could have been tough, but it was just fun. David would turn to me throughout the project and say “This is fun, right?”. I think because it felt different to what we spent our careers doing (type of work). Maybe it should always feel that fun. Or at least, we should try and make every project that exciting.

Credits

72 Seasons Creative Directors: David Turner & Jamie McCathie

Design & Art Direction: Ian Conklin

Cover and object photography: Stan Musilek

Props/burning: Mark Welsh

Band portraits: Lee Jeffries

Music video director & band group shots: Tim Saccenti