Today marks the release of Big & Rich’s Greatest Hits on CD & DVD, so this seemed like a perfect time to take a little walk down memory lane on the past 6 years of working with the genre-redefining band (and brand) known as Big & Rich.

It’s a rare occasion (at least for me) to have worked on every release by an artist from their debut album through their Greatest Hits album, and I’m honored to have that distinction. Big Kenny & John Rich are two of the most talented guys in the business, and it has certainly been an interesting journey.

All 6 Big & Rich releases, designed by Kevin Tucker / Collide Creative

A Horse Of A Different Color

I had been working with Warner Bros. Records Nashville for a little while, having worked on a few projects including a sadly-never-released Neal McCoy album, under the art direction of the late Maude Gilman-Clapham (whom I had had the pleasure of working with previously at Word), and the CD packaging for the first Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Warner Bros. put on a big red-carpet premiere for BCCT at the Belcourt Theatre, and Becky and I attended. At the show, we couldn’t help but notice a couple of odd-looking gents a couple of rows behind us who caused a few distractions during the show (can you imagine sitting behind Big Kenny’s top hat in a movie theater?). Something about them stuck out in my mind, and the next day, I spoke to then-WBR-creative-director Janice Azrak (now a citizen of the great state of Hawaii) about some current projects, and couldn’t help asking who those guys were, and she told me they were a new act who had just been signed at Warner. Now, I’m not sure if it was this conversation, or the fact that Janice had an affinity for what she had seen in my work up to this point, but a few weeks later, I got a call from her to come and meet about their first album.

Honestly, I would have never thought they would have been as successful as they soon became. I liked what I heard of them – it was different and refreshing, and they were even-handed with elements of humor and heartfelt seriousness, all of which appealed to me very much, but I kind of saw it as a niche, and thought it would be a great project to work on. I have never been so happy to be so wrong!

From the beginning of the project, we had the issue of the logo that has adorned all of their album covers. Many people probably assume that this is something I created originally, but, in fact, the original version was created by friend-of-the-band Bob Morris, and and it’s something that I have continually modified along the way, based on the original.

Big & Rich logo evolution, starting with the original logo (designed by friend of the band Bob Morris) and continuing through its Tucker/Collide-modified iterations.

It must be said that I was never happy with having to use this logo, and that I frequently proposed that we create an entirely new one, both on the first project, and on subsequent projects, but they were dead set on using this one, and on being consistent by using it repeatedly on future albums. But, of course, being asked to use artwork from an outside source is not uncommon at all, and plenty of successful acts ave consistently used the same logo treatment on their albums, so I certainly can’t fault them for that decision, and I think a key influence is that their management company also managed the career of Alabama, who is a prime example of this.

The process that led us to the cover for the first album, Horse Of A Different Color, was a long and winding one. Despite many alternative options, we kept coming back to the aforementioned logo, and a “swirl” element that I had created an early promotional sticker which the label, band, and management were all very fond of for some reason.

Early, rough cover mockups for Horse Of A Different Color, and, bottom right, the final cover.

The album was a huge success, thanks in part to the hit “Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy).” In the initial run, we ran the album in 3 different colors: red, blue, and purple; and the following Christmas, we did a green & red version with snow on the logo (which I think was a bit confusing, myself, because it made it seem like a Christmas album), and the band had a loyal fanbase.

Packaging for the first "Big & Rich's Super Galactic Fanpak" - design by Kevin Tucker

Backwards & Upside-down

Before long, there seemed to be demand for another product, and so the label conceived of the unconventional “Fan Pak” idea – a 2-disc release that comprised a CD of a few tracks of unreleased material (live, remix, etc) and a DVD containing photos and videos. The resulting project, Big & Rich’s Super Galactic Fan Pak was packaged unconventionally, using an idea I borrowed from Beth Lee (who conceived the idea a few years earlier for Squint Records’ Sixpence None The Richer and Burlap To Cashmere albums), where we use a standard jewel case package, but put the inserts in “backwards and upside-down” so that the back/traycard is used as the cover (thus confounding manufacturers and rackjobbers to no end). This made something a little unusual without adding to manufacturing costs. The packaging was inspired by vintage comics and pulp fiction, and the credits were built into something slightly resembling a “game” – an idea which I think we executed much better in the subsequent Super Galactic Fan Pak 2 (more on that later).

In Part 2 of this retrospective: Comin’ To Your City, Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace, Super Galactic Fanpak 2, Greatest Hits, Pepsi, and more.

Kevin Tucker Uncategorized

Launched this week, the new website for Decker Wealth Management.

Collide worked with Decker from the beginning, creating a new identity, and pulling together some great photography that sets the tone of professional, personal service, which features the staff of the company themselves. Photography by the excellent Gregory Byerline, with hair & makeup by Lauri Leiweke, and model talent from The Avenue Agency. The website features development services by Synthetik Media. See below for a preview of the identity, photography, and website.

Kevin Tucker Project In Focus

At last week’s Think Tank conference in Nashville, the keynote speaker was Paula Scher from Pentagram. She gave an amazing presentation – definitely worth hearing her speak if you’re in the design profession. And if you are, you know that she’s one of the most famous of people in the profession – one of our own “rock stars” (along with her husband Seymour Chwast who spoke at the conference last year, and who I had the pleasure of showing around town).

It was a conference I very much enjoyed. Most of the content was very informative and challenging, and because I had spent 3 years on the board for the local AIGA chapter, this was the first time I got to attend this event simply as an attendee (in fact, I co-created Think Tank while on the board, but that’s another story).

So, as a general rule, I don’t ask people for autographs – even from people I admire – but I decided to make an exception in this case. And because she spent a large part of her early career in the music business (as have I), I thought it would be appropriate to have her autograph an album cover that she worked on.

Paula Scher signed my Boston album!

So, of course I was a little nervous about doing this, but, after a short conversation about her presentation, I said “So… I have an odd request.” By this point, I had been carrying around this huge album in my messenger bag, and I had a little bit of trouble getting it out, and almost lost her attention as she started to talk to somebody else while I was struggling with this. But once I made my request, she chuckled and searched for a place to sign it. She seemed honored and amused at the same time, which was pretty much what I intended.

I had meant for her to sign the front – for display purposes – but of course the front is composed of an illustration which she didn’t personally do, so she seemed compelled to sign the back, by her name. I thought for a second about asking her to sign the front too, but by this point, kind of figured I’d let it go.

So, that’s my little design rock star moment. I just wish I had thought to do something like that with Seymour the year before (such a print issue of The Nose), because that would make a nice set

Kevin Tucker Defies Categorization