Fabulous! The KISS saga continues with this new album cover from designer Michael Doret. This cover’s obviously for the new KISS album SONIC BOOM coming out soon, with a tour coming right on top of it, all the hell across America. Of course, what are we interested here, KISS, the most graphically inspired band of them all! So who do you think they go to see when they want to get represented in the wildest way – Michael Doret, artist/designer of their ultra-classic album Rock and Roll Over!

Below you’ll find insight from Doret, many more examples of his fabulous portfolio, and the sketch of Sonic Boom as it was first presented to Paul Stanley! You’ll be most interested in the challenges Doret faced now that he has a much smaller canvas to work with than he did in 1976…

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.

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…

Heck yes! This post is a part the World Famous Design Junkies album art collection. And as you can imagine, I and we are big KISS fans, mostly because of their firey image. So if you, the reader and the contributor, ever have any insight into new KISS design work, you know what to do! Keep on KISSin!

You can follow the rest of the works of Michael Doret on his blog at http://blog.alphabetsoupblog.com/ and as I’m sure you already know, the only OFFICIAL source for KISS information on the internet is their very own http://kissonline.com/