LogoLounge Master Library, Volume 1

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Job:01536 Title: Logolounge Master Library Vol 1 (Rockport)

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Job:01536 Title: Logolounge Master Library Vol 1 (Rockport)

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Job:01536 Title: Logolounge Master Library Vol 1 (Rockport)

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Job:01536 Title: Logolounge Master Library Vol 1 (Rockport)

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Constellations for the

Brain

Michael Doret,

Michael Doret Graphic Design

So I had this epiphany: This was where and

when my visual aesthetics were shaped! I

remembered that I had been fascinated with

lettered and hand-painted signs—from the

enameled sides of Good Humor trucks, which

roamed my Brooklyn neighborhood in summer-

time, to the huge billboards in Times Square I’d

see when I visited my dad at work.

Nobody ever said my work was subtle—and now

I understand why: Who I am and what I do was

inspired and infl uenced by what we would now

call the “Pop Culture” that surrounded me as I

was growing up.

Much of your work is also very complex.

How does the human brain process and

recall a complex design like one of your

crest logos?

>

I think one tends to see and remember

patterns in images. What I like to do with my

work is create what I call “constellations” of

letters and images that somehow are tied

together by the use of pattern, repetition, form,

and color, and a very basic geometry. Any really

good art should do that.

I think the origins of contemporary logos go back

to ancient symbols, like the cross and the star,

the circle and the triangle—geometric symbols

that were imbued with magical properties by their

creators. Think of medieval heraldry and of

ancient vestments: We may not be conscious of

it, but these forms are at the root of what we now

call logos and corporate identity. These icons,

shapes, and symbols are an important part of

our past. Who knows whether or not our

responsiveness to them might even go all the

way back to the genetic level?

Michael Doret has long been respected and

admired for his ability to combine design and

illustration in identity designs that hearken from

the past, yet feel completely contemporary. His

clients have included such admirable names as

Time magazine, the NBA, the Graphic Artists

Guild, Taschen Publishing, and Disney Imagi-

neering. In this article, Doret shares how

inspirations from the past inform his work today.

Your identity and logo design work is so

distinctive. Where does your inspiration

come from?

>

How I approach my work has a lot to do with

my growing up in the 1950s in Brooklyn, near

Coney Island. I was not really aware of how this

environment had infl uenced me until a few years

ago when I came across an old photo my dad

had taken of my brother and me in front of the

Tilt-A-Whirl in Coney Island. Looking at that

photo, I realized that it contained many of the

visual cues and elements that would later

become very important in my work: bright colors,

emblematic shapes, and wonderful, shaded,

outlined, and dimensional letterforms.

What I like to do with

my work is create what

I call “constellations”

of letters

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IMAGES

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