Stephen Doyle
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is the creative director of the design studio Doyle Partners. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1956. Doyle works as a designer who looks to create meaning for words through the incorporation of sculpture and architecture. Stephen Doyle started out his career in Cooper Union, it was here where his fascination with working with his hands began. Cooper Union contained a foundation program where he worked in woodworking, photography, plaster carving and bronze casting. There was also an architecture school there in which Doyle found himself inspired and intrigued by. This allowed him to develop a te ph e n d oyl e
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longing to make typography out of unique materials in order to express language and ideas,so that they could cast shadows. Doyle believes that his work is created by thinking with his hands. His designs come to life through his use of compassion, humanism, a little magic and a really good story to tell and of course a little insubordination. He has worked in his own studio for over twenty-five years and has worked to make it a place of experimentation and story making in order to enchant a diverse audience. He works to create pieces that are midway between artwork and design.
with Your Hands
Draw Up A Chair
“A competition to design outdoor seating for the park at The Battery.”
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One of the ways I try to expose the deeper meaning of words is enbody them and lift them off the page & screen.
NY Times Grit
“Installations of character traits in two NYC schools originally produced for the article “What if the Secret to Success is Failure?” in the New York Times Magazine.”
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Hypertext
“A foray into sentence structure.”
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Hypertext
“A foray into sentence structure.”
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Books to Life
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te ph e n d oyl e ’ s
work outside of the usual construct of design began with his creation of Hypertexts. Hypertexts are books that Stephen Doyle cut the text out of and transformed them sculpturally. He developed forms that were relevant to what the book was relaying to the reading audience. Hypertexts were meant to function as a parody of the internet but turned into something more. They became a way to get the idea out of the book in a visual way. To Doyle these hypertexts allow a book to function as a landscape that can be built upon. The excitement of these pieces
also lie within the fact that there is a lack of logic to them. They also show warmth and personality of humanity due to being made by the hand. Hands are not perfect, therefore the work that they create are never truly perfect, but they still manage to hold a company element. This allowed Doyle to be able to incorporate it in his commercial work.
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“I embrace the form of an open book as a landscape on which to build.� Hypertext
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in Public Space
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o yl e s o o n e xpa nde d
into environmental graphics. According to Doyle Environmental graphics are not so much about graphic design as they are about telling a story. It is about taking text and infiltrating a space without creating a big footprint. Doyle’s work with environmental graphics also allowed him the opportunity to work outside the page and engage in public space. Environmental graphics not only allowed him to engage with the public but it allowed there to be a new diversity with the emerging work. Not only does environmental graphics allow an engagement with the public space but it takes strides in order to tell a story. Environmental graphics
is a type of design that can be influenced by the arts. Even Environmental graphics is borderline art, and the arts take advantage of any material in order to relay its message. By doing so, the space it is more likely to engage and enchant viewers. Doyle looks at the art world for inspiration because it teaches him ways to extract that type of emotional engagement in his designs.
Drive-in Movies at Rockerfeller Center
“Poster, banners and microwave popcorn packaging.”
New York Botanical Garden
“‘Fountain of Life” dedication plaque in the form of a bronze book, sculpted by Stephen Doyle.”
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Macombs Dam Park
“A scheme of environmental graphic for the former site of Yankee Stadium. An “indelible field” was created by drawing the outline of the ball field in the grass and infiltrating benches, paths and fences with messages.”
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Jane’s Carousel
“Branding and Envinromental graphics for a refurbished 1922 carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park.”
NY Times Grit
“Installations of character traits in two NYC schools originally produced for the article “What if the Secret to Success is Failure?” in the New York Times Magazine.”
19th Amendment
“Installation commemorating the 75th anniversary of the amendment which granted women the right to vote.”
Shark! at New York Aquarium “Design for upcoming exhitbit”
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with both Hypertexts and in environmental graphics, Doyle is able to achieve his goal in bringing new meaning to words. Both environmental graphics and Hypertexts explore ways in which building up text and imagery help to enhance design without breaking away from design. Both of these fields also allowed an opportunity for Doyle’s work to create a different kind of engagement with the viewer, one that may not have existed if the 3D element did not exist. Though Doyle’s work is almost borderline sculpture in some cases, it does not leave the design realm due to the way he incorporates text. By Doyle allowing himself to think with his hands it allows him to expand his work in a direction most designers do not take and allows him to create this harmony between 3D and 2D design that normally does h r o ug h h is wor k
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not exist. This may even have to do with the creation of the storytelling that 3D design allows, due to the fact that it enhances the text, but that does not mean that 2D design is incapable of portraying something. Again Doyle looked at 3D design as a source of inspiration, because it captures the audience in a different way. By Doyle working to combine that into his 2D design work it allowed him to create designs that allowed and still allows a greater audience enchantment.
“We get to use public space to tell a story to people that we don’t know. We get to leave a permanent trail of breadcrumbs of information, to tell stories and delight, in a public place. Creating work for people to discover and cherish – that’s really fun!”
Macombs Dam Park
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Written and Designed By: Olivia Recupero
“”Think With Your Hands.” The Words and Work of Stephen Doyle.” Print Magazine. March 26, 2017. Accessed April 25, 2017.
Clifford, John. Graphic icons: visionaries who shaped modern graphic design. San Francisco: Peachpit Press, 2014.
“Stephen doyle (doyle partners) interview.” Designboom | architecture & design magazine. January 12, 2014. Accessed April 25, 2017.
Millman, Debbie, and Steven Heller. How to think like a great graphic designer. New York: Allworth Press, 2007.
“Stephen Doyle.” Design Observer. Accessed April 25, 2017. designobserver.com “WORD PICTURES.” Wwword. Accessed April 25, 2017. Stephen Doyle Biography by Julie Lasky