Growing Up in Alphabet City: The Unexpected Letterform Art of Michael Doret

About the Author

A graduate of the Cooper Union, Michael opened his design studio first in New York City and later in Hollywood. An eight-time winner of the New York Art Directors Club Silver Award, Michael is a specialist in logos and letterforms. His unique typographic vision blends elements of lettering, illustration and graphic design. The inspirations for his work come primarily from his early years growing up near the bright lights, signage, and brilliant colors of Brooklyn’s Coney Island, and later from such diverse sources as matchbook covers, theater marquees, enamel signs, and early-to-mid-20th-century packaging and ephemera.

In addition to designing many memorable covers for Time, Doret has designed album covers—from Rock and Roll Over for KISS to his Grammy Award–nominated design for the Squirrel Nut Zippers—and has created many famous works, including the logo for the New York Knicks, the Summer Harvest stamps for the USPS, the title treatment for Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, and the classic poster for Simon and Garfunkel’s concert in Central Park. In the early 2000s, Doret branched out into the realm of font design by opening his digital foundry Alphabet Soup Type Founders. To date, he has released ten unique font designs.

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