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Today I did my very first live radio interview with Stone and Double T at WXRX radio out of Rockford Illinois, home of the landmark Coronado Theater. I chatted with them about my work on KISS' album covers: both "Rock and Roll Over" and "Sonic Boom".
In developing and refining my pencil sketch for Sonic Boom I wasn’t completely happy with how the background was working with the diamond shape and the positioning and scale of the lightning border (a small nod to RaRO). I also wanted to play up the idea of something shattering (i.e. from a sonic boom). So I came up with the semi-abstract idea of concentric circles rippling outward like water, only breaking up incrementally into smaller and smaller segments as they expanded, changing the background color from violet to black. It seemed like a fairly simplistic idea, so I tried it and it worked. It also seemed to serve well to both ground and amplify the light beams emanating from the center, which break through the faces. I went through several color iterations, ending with one that had a dark red bleed border. I showed that version to Paul. He looked at it for a minute and then suggested we just change the border to black. We both agreed that this worked better, finishing the design process on this piece.
I did have to redo all the art for the CD/DVD package, which has a slightly more horizontal proportion. That meant shifting and manipulating the proportions of many of the elements. Because the angle of the beams had changed in the new configuration, the most complicated part of this was redoing all the faces. It’s a little difficult to tell what went into the face art, transforming them from normal color photographs, so here’s an enlarged detail:
At first glance, it might look as though I accomplished this using some version of Photoshop’s posterize filter—but I didn’t. The photos needed to be manipulated quite extensively to gain the look I was trying to achieve. I used a similar process when I did the graphics for the Jewish Zodiac pieces.
I’m hoping this art will elicit strong reactions from KISS fans and art enthusiasts alike. My intention was to stir nostalgia for the era of Rock and Roll Over, while inviting the same enthusiasm for new adventure that the Sonic Boom albums and DVD intend to do.
The avid KISS fan will note that the KISS logo on Sonic Boom is not the “official” logo. As I did with RaRO, I redrew the KISS logo after discussing the idea with Paul Stanley. He knew that I had redrawn it for RaRO, and liked the result. In fact, he told me that I’m the only designer who he would ever allow to do that! Below I’ve posted an image with the official KISS logo (at upper left) and just to it’s right, my redrawn version. Below that are (on the left) the logo from Sonic Boom, and the one from RaRO.
Tinkering with the KISS logo, ever so slightly, was an important step towards seamlessly blending the iconic logo with the (hopefully) iconic cover design. I’m very happy with end result, which you see on the cover of Sonic Boom. It truly has been a pleasure to return to my roots, in essence, by rejoining the creative process with KISS. As it was the first time, this experience was one to remember! I can’t wait for the next adventure…
When Paul Stanley came by my studio to discuss how to proceed on the art for the cover of their upcoming CD/DVD package "Sonic Boom", I had no idea what to expect. I hadn't met with him since working on Rock and Roll Over, and had very little memory of what that had been like. Any anxiety I had melted away when we started talking. Paul is a "gentlemen's gentleman" and I immediately felt at ease talking with him—as if all those years had not intervened since the last time we had spoken. After some small talk he explained what he was after with the new cover art. His vision for this album was to make it as vital and raw as it had been when they did RaRO. He felt that that had been some of the best work that they had ever done, and wanted the new album to recreate that energy both musically and visually. While he didn't want me to reprise what I had done with my art for the earlier cover, he did want me to try to capture some of the same spirit, attitude, energy, and look that I had instilled in that piece. Also one of his stipulations was that unlike RaRO (where I had created abstract, graphic versions of the KISS personas) this time he wanted photographic representations of the four group members in full makeup. When I did RaRO I had a 12" canvas to work on. Now with CD covers and digital booklets that canvas had been reduced to less than 40% of its original size. Designing in a 4¾" space poses some very different problems from what I faced while working on covers for vinyl releases. In fact the older cover design would not have worked at that size, it's many elements would have felt crowded into a small space. So the elements of Sonic Boom had to be bigger, bolder—and fewer. I made the decision to make the title the main focus of the graphics, moving the other elements (faces, KISS logo) into prominent—but subordinate—roles.
So I set about putting pencil to paper and trying to solve this the way I solve any other design problem. I did not want to get psyched-out by thinking too much about how the new design would compare with RaRO. That cover had taken on a life of its own and had become a pop culture icon. Creating an iconic cover could not have been one of my goals. All I was capable of doing was to try to create the most compelling graphics possible within the parameters and limitations that had been set out for me. So I started out at the core of this design by creating what I call a "word constellation" out of the title. I tried to make it communicate its meaning visually by not only making it angular and "explosive", but also by creating a shape that was somewhat suggestive of flight—a "flying wing", if you will. Bearing in mind the symmetrical, mandala-like layout of RaRO I started designing the new piece as a field growing out of the center of the square, with the four members faces moving outwards from the center, and capped with my version of the ubiquitous KISS logo.
It took about a week for me to develop my sketch to the point where I felt confident in what I had come up with. As I had done with RaRO, I felt so strongly about this cover design that I decided to not present any other options—I wanted this to be the ONE.
This is the rough pencil I first presented to Paul. I held my breath as he first took it in, and then was able to exhale when I saw a big smile appear on his face.
Next: A few changes and the final art.
I've been waiting a few months to be able to talk about this—and I have talked about it to some degree in a few online interviews, but not really in any detail. Back in April of this year I received a telephone call from out of the blue—from somewhere in South America. At the other end of the line was KISS' Paul Stanley. It'd been more years than I cared to remember since we last spoke. That was when I had done the cover art for "Rock and Roll Over"—KISS' 5th album and their 2nd to go Platinum. So you can understand my surprise when Paul asked if I'd be interested in designing the cover art for KISS' first studio album in 11 years—which Paul himself was producing.
That's when I started remembering how exciting it was the first time around, to have been involved in that fast-paced world of entertainment and music. For me it had been a far cry from doing the corporate logos, magazine and book covers I had been working on at the time. An "edgy" job for me then was doing a spread for High Times (yep, they've been around for a while)! I've always enjoyed the fact that doing what I do has enabled me to straddle many different design worlds, from the fairly straight to the totally off-the-wall. I always tried to say "yes" to just about anyone who was adventurous enough, and had the vision to see how having me design for them could work to their advantage. At any rate I had said "yes"to KISS the first time around (even though I had no idea what I was doing), so of course I again said yes to Paul. We agreed to meet when he returned at the conclusion of their South American tour.
Much to my surprise the "Rock and Roll Over" cover had in recent years become one of the most—if not the most—talked about piece of art in my portfolio. It was a little bewildering to me how over the years that cover had become an icon for this iconic group. I've been contacted by more people about my KISS artwork in the past 6 or 7 years than in all the years prior, and more than any other piece I've ever done including the New York Knicks logo. So the expectations for this new art I was to work on were quite high.
Next: the new cover design revealed.
It's been a long time coming, but my foundry, Alphabet Soup has now gone live on the world renowned font reseller FontShop—the first mail-order distributor of digital fonts. In the weeks and months leading up to this I had the pleasure of working with Stephen "Stewf" Coles, self-proclamied "Glyph Pusher" at FontShop and Editor of Typographica, "a review of typefaces and type books, with occasional commentary on fonts and typographic design". Among his many other pursuits, Stephen is also a regular contributor to FontFeed, "a daily dispatch of recommended fonts, typography techniques, and inspirational examples of digital type at work in the real world".
One of my favorite projects of late has been designing the 12 signs of the Jewish Zodiac™. Seth Front, who is the mastermind behind this project recently alerted me to the fact that the Hollywood Bowl has gone zoinks for his zodiac—devoting an entire window display to it. If you can't make it to the Bowl this summer, you can always check out the designs on my website, or purchase the merch on the Jewzo site itself.
For those of you who are interested, an extensive interview with me can be found on Letter Cult.
Mark Sunday June 7th on your calendars: my mentor, the great Charles White III, is opening the doors of Olio to the public, and putting some classic work up for sale. He will be making available paintings:
...sculptures, like bits and pieces of the fantastical work he did for "Treasure Island" and the "Atlantis" hotels:
...and various and sundry prints and other choice tidbits:
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and not to be missed! Check out more on Charlie's blog. Please RSVP by email or by calling Lynn at 818.789.5613 by May 29th.
Olio - 9 Wavecrest Avenue Venice, CA 90291 310.452.1912 Sunday June 7th 2009 – 3:00 PM-6:00 PMFree Parking:
At long last, thanks to some savvy assistance and excellent technical OpenType encoding from Patrick Griffin of Canada Type, Deliscript Upright and Deliscript Slant have finally been released. Currently they can be found exclusively on the FontBros. website. Check out the User Manual to get an idea of how the different features are accessed.
Thank you one and all for your suggestions. I do plan on adding lighter weights to this family, as well as versions with Eastern European accented characters, and one for those who only have OpenType incompatible applications. Any comments would still be appreciated!
In addition to being named "MyFonts’ Brush Script Font of the Year" and before that being named as a "Rising Star", Metroscript has now been named as #5 in Smashing Magazine's "30 Brilliant Typefaces For Corporate Design"—which they call "a great reference for professional designers looking for some fresh, beautiful typefaces for their corporate projects." They go on to say "With Metroscript, ...lettering artist Michael Doret has adapted his trademark hand-lettering style to the computer, creating one of the most sophisticated suites of script fonts on the market."
...and coming soon to a type distributor near you: Alphabet Soup's newest release—Deliscript! Over six months in the making, this font is in the final stages of its OpenType encoding (which has been entrusted to master fontmeister Patrick Griffin of Canada Type). Done in the same spirit as Metroscript, and unlike many "vintage" fonts currently in release, this is not a rehash of an historic font design or showcard lettering that had been unearthed, but a completely new creation. It does have something of the look and feel of a vintage style, but is also fresh and contemporary. Check back here soon for more info, and for the release announcement!
Today is history. I cannot remember ever feeling this thrilled or so hopeful about a new president. The closest thing I can associate with this was the tenor of the nation during the years before the Kennedy assasination. The country was unified behind him and he was beloved by almost everyone. When he was shot I was in school, and I remember students were either stunned or openly weeping. My daughter Wenonah reminded me this morning that once many years ago I spoke to her about the Kennedy years, about how he was loved, how everyone was so positive about—and supportive of—our government. She had told me that she just couldn't imagine ever feeling that way, or even relate to that experience. After the inauguration this morning she told me that now she understood what I meant. After November 22nd, 1963, our country entered a long dark era, from which only now it may be emerging. I never thought a day like this would be possible in my lifetime. After all the US has been through I never imagined that we could again elect a person of such intellect and potential as Barack Obama. I believe he is capable of being one of the greatest leaders this nation has ever had. We will all need to re-evaluate what is truly important in our lives, and he and his administration will need the support of all of us to tackle the monumental challenges that lie ahead.
The lead item in the January '09 issue of MyFonts News is reproduced below. I have been thrilled that this font has been accepted so readily by the design community (and beyond), and would like to thank Stuart Sandler of Font Bros and Mr Retro for his assistance in helping me realize this design.
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At the very beginning of my career I hooked up with airbrush wiz Charles White III. He rented me deskspace in his studio on Lexington & 26th Street in Manhattan, and helped give my career the push it needed. We did quite a bit of work together in those days—work that I'd like to think was groundbreaking illustration work. Rather than have typography slapped over an illustration, we tried to figure out new and inventive ways of integrating letter and image. This is evident in pieces like the Chubby Checker album cover where the title was part of the illustration—contained in the Checker Cab-like decal I created—or the Gentle Giant cover where I painstakingly figured out what dimensional lettering would look like as it wrapped around a glass jar. One of our first collaborations was the incredibly complex Screaming Yellow Zonkers poster which took a more traditional approach to the integration of letterforms and illustration.
Charlie is finally getting the recognition he deserves for that early work in the just released book Overspray by Norman Hathaway. The book features Charlie who, along with fellow artists Dave Willardson, Peter Lloyd and Peter Palombi, formed a quartet of California artists that transformed the illustration landscape in the '70s. Charlie, Dave and Norman together with legendary designer and art director Mike Salisbury (who contributed an essay to the book) were all in attendance at a book signing at FAMILY in Los Angeles on 11/12/08. To see photos from the FAMILY booksigning (which includes the back of my head) and some discussion from Norman Hathaway about the process and problems he encountered putting together this book, check out his Overspray Blog. To see more of Charlie's work from this period, I've put together a PDF of images (not currently available) culled from his website. Throughout his career Charles White III has been consistently one of the most interesting talents around. Visit his Olio website to see what he's been up to.
My most recent Alphabet Soup release is a re-creation of Morris Fuller Benton's classic Bank Gothic. I felt that adding a set of lower case characters that felt completely consistent with the original design would greatly enhance the usability of this beautiful workhorse font.
Bank Gothic AS-Regular & Bank Gothic AS-Shortcaps
Designing a lowercase that had never existed before for Bank Gothic—and have the new characters feel as if they were there from the beginning—wasn't as easy a task as I first believed it would be. Trying to second guess how Mr. Benton would have designed this lower case was at times perplexing, so this project (which I initially thought I'd complete in about three or four months) actually took almost five years to complete. But I believe that in the end I finally got it right, and hope that Mr. Benton would have approved!
Bank Gothic AS-Condensed & Bank Gothic AS-Condensed Shortcaps
In addition to creating a set of lowercase characters, I also created a new set of shortcaps for those instances where the classic Bank Gothic "caps and shortcaps" look is preferable. Plus, I created a Condensed version of the font, also with new lowercase and standard shortcaps. The Bank Gothic AS family is available at MyFonts, at Font Bros, and also through Veer. A Bank Gothic AS Manual (PDF) containing more background and a complete character set can be downloaded from my downloads page at Illoz.
My digital type foundry Alphabet Soup is the headline feature for this Summer's edition of the MyFonts newsletter "In Your Face". Not sure why they like me so much, but who's complaining?!
Years ago I did the cover for Kiss' album "Rock and Roll Over". When I did it, I styled it after another piece I had done—a cover for the Japanese graphics magazine IDEA. Over the years this piece has gotten more notoriety (founded or unfounded) than almost any other piece of art I've done. I've done many interviews about my experience doing this cover. This short interview was done for Rockpages Web Magazine, out of Greece, which is part of their year-long special on this rock group. Another more recent interview was done for "Tokyo Five" and can be seen HERE.
Metroscript is making it's Hollywood debut on the big screen by appearing in a climactic scene in the Universal/Marvel release "The Incredible Hulk". The font was used to create a large neon sign for "Williams Plumbing" that appears over the city. Check it out towards the end of Trailer 2.
A month ago Metroscript was featured in the MyFonts monthly newsletter "Rising Stars" which highlights the bestsellers among their newer fonts. To our surprise Metroscript was featured again in the just released June edition of "Rising Stars"—but in addition they are now highlighting in the newslettter my three other font familes: my take on Bank Gothic (with lowercase characters), PowerStation and Orion. Thank you MyFonts!
In mid-March I began selling my Alphabet Soup fonts through MyFonts. To my surprise, in that short period of time "Metroscript" rose to the top of their list of "Starlets". The Starlets list ranks all fonts that appeared on MyFonts within the previous 50 days according to their sales volume. MyFonts just sent out their May newsletter Rising Stars highlighting the best-sellers among their new fonts, and I'm proud to say that Metroscript is prominently featured.
This is all very gratifying to me—I arrived at font design by way of my career as a lettering artist—which is not the route taken by most font designers. Font design is a very different discipline from lettering in that it is a much more disciplined craft. I can make a piece of lettering sing by using all kinds of tricks and devices to create visual excitement. It does take a keen eye and lots of imagination and know-how to make a piece of lettering stand out, but font design is much less forgiving: you are limited to one letter next to another in a straight line, and every letter in a font must be in harmony with every other letter. I think much of Metroscript's success has to do with the fact that I brought a lettering artist's eye to a font designer's craft, and I think this may be appreciated by those who are looking for something a little different. I've been told that copy set in Metroscript resembles hand lettering more than any other font.
Paul Shaw has written a review of my Alphabet Soup Type Founders for the April issue of Print Magazine, where he writes about three of my four font releases. He didn't write about my latest release—an update of the classic Bank Gothic which has my newly added lowercase—because it hadn't been relased yet. At any rate you can check out the review either by going to the Print Magazine website, or if their website proves too troublesome, I've reproduced Paul's review here.
