(continued from Part 1)

Comin’ To Your City

By the time their second album was in the preparation stages, Big & Rich had become quite a success, and there had been many changes at the record label. I was thrown headlong into the second album project, and after we settled on a concept for the cover, I set about getting the final imagery to have the right look. I had in mind a very specific aesthetic for the globe on the cover – a vintage-looking globe with “chunky” topological features and not much other detail. I searched high and low, scouring stock collections as well as antique stores, and just when I was about to give up hope of finding just the right globe, I was on my way to one last antique shop, when, while stopped at a traffic light, I found it on the side of the street.

Left: The globe as seen on the side of a building; Right: The final Big & Rich: Comin' To Your City packaging.

It’s very seldom that a “Eureka” moment happens in the course of a project such as this, but this was one– there it was, mounted on the side of a building. To this day, I have no idea what business had existed in years’ past that warranted a huge globe as part of its signage, but at the time the building was occupied by a cleaning company and an attorney, as I recall, and the globe is still there as of this writing. After some difficulty in tracking down the owner, we worked out a deal, and I had photographer Eric May capture the globe from several angles. (By the way, if they ever tour China, India, or Australia, I’ve got an alternate cover image). The band had put together an outlandish photoshoot independently, utilizing the talents of the recently wed Christiev Alphin as art director & stylist, and photographer Kristin Barlowe, and incorporating everything from buffalos and camels to a bank robbery scene, to… a life-size plastic cow.

Packaging elements for Big & Rich: Comin' To Your City

Sadly, on the day of this album’s release, we bid farewell to Warner Nashville’s Creative Services director Eric Mansfield, who was tragically shot in a carjacking. I had worked with Eric for several years at that point, and though we were only “work friends” I have to say I was very impacted by the tragedy. Eric was one of the kindest people I’ve ever had the privilege to work with, or probably ever will, and I know that everyone whose life he ever touched thought very highly of him. It is some tiny solace, however, to know that the two young men responsible are currently serving prison sentences.

Left: An example of the print ads for the project (this one a 'congrats' ad for their ACM nominations); Right: An industry marketing piece titled "A Field Guide to Big & Rich."

Click here to see the interactive version of the above print piece, created with the help of the very talented Jake Stutzman.

The Pepsi Challenge

The following year, I got a call from the label asking me help coordinate some artwork between the label and Pepsi, who was doing a co-promotion on an upcoming can design. It was unusual campaign, aimed at “Generation Y” and relying on a “discovery” promotional method, in which consumers are intended to mentally connect the dots between the visual clues and a special website printed on the can. It was part of Pepsi’s “Artist Series” which also featured All American Rejects and Pharrell Williams. After several discussion with Pepsi, their agency, the band, their management, and Warner Bros., it was decided that Pepsi would hire me to do the design of the can. Of course I was thrilled, and to date the resulting product has the highest print run of anything I’ve worked on (by several million). It was a complex process involving five different parties with varying levels of approval. Below are a few of the 70+ options presented, as well as the final product.

A few of the 70+ comps presented for the Big & Rich Pepsi can, including a near-final version (bottom-right)

The final product of the Big & Rich Pepsi can.

Coming in Part 3: Super Galactic Fanpak 2, Between Raising Hell & Amazing Grace, Greatest Hits, the Bell Witch, a duel, and an unwinnable board game.

Kevin Tucker Uncategorized