Turner Duckworth nominated for Grammy award

Turner Duckworth’s design for Metallica’s album Death Magnetic has been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Recording Package category.

The design consultancy, traditionally known for its work with more conventional clients such as Coca-Cola and Mr Kipling, restyled the classic Metallica logo, creating a signature typographic style and crafting promotional materials including a coffin-shaped special edition and a vinyl box set.

Bruce Duckworth, co-founder of Turner Duckworth, says Metallica’s US record label Warner Brothers entered the album into the category without the consultancy knowing.

‘We had no idea we were entered into the awards, so it was a huge surprise when [Warner Bros] phoned us up to tell us we were nominated. We’re not the coolest consultancy to be working on album covers, though it meant our work went through in a pure state,’ says Duckworth.

‘CDs are really just another form of packaging, and as designers we should be capable of working on pretty much anything, once you apply the principles of good design,’ he adds.

Turner Duckworth started work on the project in April, having won the project through a family connection with the band.

‘Metallica has a unique relationship with its record company, in that the band has complete creative control and can decide to do innovative packaging, or whatever it wants. Metallica pays for that out of its own royalties,’ says Duckworth.

Duckworth says the consultancy will ‘definitely’ be going to the Grammys in the US next February.

The Best Recording Package nominations are as follows:

– Death Magnetic by art directors Bruce Duckworth, Sarah Moffatt and David Turner, for Metallica on Warner Bros

– Hawk Nelson… Is My Friend!, by art director Don Clark, for Hawk Nelson on BEC Recordings

– Nouns, by art director Brian Roettinger, for No Age on Sub Pop

– Radio Retaliation, by art directors Neal Ashby, Matthew Curry and Patrick Donohue, for Thievery Corporation on ESL Music

Summer Rains, by art directors Amanda Barrett, Abby DeWald, Renee Jablow and Rick Whitmore, for The Ditty Bops on The Green Witch Society