The Metal Hammer Golden Gods 2016 was held at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith and ended up being the magazine's biggest award show in it's history. All proceeds from tickets went to Nordoff Robbins, Childline and Teenage Cancer Trust.

As art editor of the brand I was tasked with creating a theme for the awards as well as implementing the creative direction. Using the venue's history as a basis for the awards and to use the vintage cinema idea as an influence. I got to work extremely closely with Magictorch who were given a rough sketch and brief to build the logo from. The concept used a front of a cinema as a base, the stone framework hinting at the shape of the venue itself. We then created an animation of this to be used at the start of the show which featured live performances from Halestorm, Gojira, Amon Amarth. In additions to a very special tribute to Lemmy from Saxon after his death in the previous December, with the surviving members joining them on stage. In addition to the Golden Gods branding and assets I also created the logo for this, reusing assets previously made by Magictorch for our Lemmy tribute issue as well as creating new elements. This was used across all brands and social media outlets.

Once we had the idea polished I then had to put together various promotional materials assisted by my deputy art editor. This ranged from invites, AAA passes, photo boards and all branding for Metal Hammer or Golden Gods. We also put together adverts for the event and the online assets for each band to use to share their nominations. I then had to decorate the venue itself so I created several posters from past covers to link to the 30th anniversary of Metal Hammer. Positioned throughout the venue on top of regular branding of the awards these were themed to be of bands attending to create point and photo opportunities.

The event itself generated excellent coverage for the magazine brand, TeamRock and all involved. The online reach from our social media campaign alone reaching over 6 million people, while press coverage in general estimated to reach around 300 million making it the biggest awards ceremony for Metal Hammer so far.


The final Golden Gods 2016 logo
Golden Gods 2016  VIP tickets
Golden Gods 2016 Aftershow invite
Selection of posters created for the venue
Selection of images of the event by John McMurtrie, Derek Bremner, Will Ireland and Kevin Nixon
The Lemmy tribute logo

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