Roger Huggett

Roger Huggett is a British designer and art director best known for his extensive work on Paul McCartney’s visual presentations. He was responsible for most of the artwork for Paul’s solo career from the 1970s onward. He first became involved with McCartney’s projects around 1970 and continued to contribute to album covers, packaging, and promotional designs well into the 1980s (and beyond). Huggett’s creative role often involved translating McCartney’s ideas into finished artwork, working in tandem with photographers (notably Linda McCartney) and other artists. Huggett’s collaborative relationship with McCartney spanned decades, establishing him as a key behind-the-scenes figure in the visual branding of McCartney’s post-Beatles career.

Huggett’s first major project with McCartney was the packaging of “McCartney” (1970) – Paul’s debut solo album released just as The Beatles were dissolving. The album’s artwork was a homespun, intimate affair: Paul provided rough mock-ups and concept ideas, while Huggett and artist Gordon House executed the design. Linda McCartney’s photographs were featured heavily, including the now-famous bowl of spilled cherries on the front cover and a collage of 21 family snapshots in the gatefold spread.

Throughout the 1970s, Huggett contributed to many of Paul’s and Wings’ album packages. He is credited with involvement in Ram (1971), Band on the Run (1973), Venus and Mars (1975), and the triple-LP Wings over America (1976), among others.

Many of these 1970s albums were designed in collaboration with Hipgnosis (the famed album design firm), and Huggett often worked alongside Hipgnosis artists like House. His contributions included layout design, typography, and coordinating the inclusion of elements like posters or booklets that accompanied certain releases (for instance, Red Rose Speedway (1973) featured a 12-page booklet, whose artwork and assembly Huggett helped oversee.

One significant project outside of album covers was McCartney’s official fan publication Club Sandwich, launched in 1977. Huggett was the original designer and art director for this Wings/McCartney fan club magazine. At McCartney’s request, the newsletter was crafted to resemble a traditional newspaper.

The first I heard of Club Sandwich was when Paul called, saying that he wanted to produce a fan magazine that was different from everybody else’s. He wanted to make it just like a newspaper and asked me to prepare a couple of broad-sheet formats – he didn’t want tabloid size and he didn’t want shiny paper. It was printed, originally, by The Westminster Press, in west London, because they had the “old” technology that produced the required saw-tooth edge, and the little holes on the side of the page that newspapers have. They printed Club Sandwich in the daytime, when the presses were idle.

Roger Huggett – From Club Sandwich #81, Spring 1997 – “20 YEARS OF CLUB SANDWICH”

For the very first issue, Paul, Roger and I sat on the floor of MPL’s new offices and mapped it out, bit by bit. Paul had definite ideas about the words and I took down what he wanted to say. He also wanted a letter from somebody who was named, which was me.

Sue Cavanaugh – From Club Sandwich #81, Spring 1997 – “20 YEARS OF CLUB SANDWICH”

He had the front cover idea already drawn up, including the standup bass photo, and he’d written the Club Sandwich logo and brought it in with him. We did a very rough paste-up then and there, with sketches of picture areas, copy areas and headlines and then I went away and fleshed it out. Those early issues were very fast in production because they were only four-pages: one sheet of paper folded in half.

Roger Huggett – From Club Sandwich #81, Spring 1997 – “20 YEARS OF CLUB SANDWICH”

In the early days everything was sent to a printer for them to proof-up as typesetting and then turn into metal blocks. The transition to computer was gradual rather than sudden but now it’s all written, designed and typeset on Apple Macs. What hasn’t altered is the fact that it’s still produced on non-shiny paper, and that we attach the same importance to both getting the right cover image – some of the covers have been really good, all the way down the years – and the high pictorial content, not just in numbers but in size: we always ensure there are full-page shots.

Roger Huggett – From Club Sandwich #81, Spring 1997 – “20 YEARS OF CLUB SANDWICH”

During the 1980s, as McCartney’s projects grew in scale and complexity, Huggett became a go-to art director for album visuals and related media. He often received formal credits on McCartney’s releases in this decade. Notably, on the soundtrack album Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984) – which accompanied McCartney’s feature film of the same name – Huggett is listed as the Artwork Coordinator (sometimes described as handling “sleeve artwork”). The album’s liner notes credit “Artwork Coordination by Roger Huggett”. In practice, this meant Huggett managed the overall visual concept and production for the sleeve, while other designers executed specific tasks (for example, Annie Carlton, John Pasche, and Sandra Leamon are credited with sleeve design, and Geoff Halpin with cover lettering). The Broad Street album packaging featured a mix of neon-blue aesthetic and film stills, tying into the movie’s theme – a look that Huggett helped unify across posters and adverts as well.

Huggett’s input is also evident on Paul’s late-80s projects. For instance, he worked on the design of “All the Best!” (1987), Paul’s career-spanning hits compilation. He was similarly involved in Flowers in the Dirt (1989) – one of McCartney’s most acclaimed 1980s albums. Flowers’ cover was based on an artwork collaboration between Linda McCartney and artist Brian Clarke, but Huggett served in an art-directorial capacity. In fact, contemporaneous credits (and later reissue liner notes) list Huggett as a “Creative Consultant” on Flowers in the Dirt and other albums of this period. As a creative consultant or art director, Huggett would ensure that McCartney’s vision was executed faithfully – advising on everything from typography and layouts to printing quality.

Beyond album covers, Huggett continued to design promotional materials in the 1980s. He contributed to tour-related graphics such as tour programs and promotional posters. For example, the 1989–1990 Paul McCartney World Tour (supporting Flowers in the Dirt) featured a lavish tour book and stage visuals; Huggett, by then deeply familiar with McCartney’s visual history, was part of the team behind those elements (though the primary designers for the 1989 tour book were actually Linda McCartney and illustrator Brian Clarke, Huggett’s influence was present in advisory roles). Additionally, Huggett oversaw artwork for McCartney’s singles – e.g. the 1985 “Spies Like Us” picture disc and the 1983 “We All Stand Together” (the Rupert “Frog Song” single) – ensuring even one-off releases had high-quality, cohesive design.