Using photography assets shot by Herring & Herring, we created a superimposed image of the band’s headshots, conveying the idea of “destiny pre-determined” despite the self-struggle, an underlying theme for the album.

We created a simple and yet iconic cover image, also inspiring us to bring back the iconic Metallica logo on the cover and giving the logo a glitch effect conveying electricity and motion.

We designed different versions of the cover to place across a variety of package forms, creating a cohesive system all together.

The album was on the US Billboard 200 at number one in the first week.

It sold 291K units in the first week and topped the charts in 57 countries.

We wanted to create a clean and yet impactful album cover without adhering to the norms attached to heavy metal album covers. We focused on clean white background with strong visual photography, creating a fresh take to the band’s album artwork to date.

We were tasked to design the cover of Metallica’s 10th studio album, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, the band’s first album release in eight years following Death Magnetic in 2008.