Details

Category: Inductees

Created: Monday, 19 June 2023 15:30

Written by Gary Johnson

Dennis Loren is an accomplished graphic designer specializing in music related marketing materials and publication design. He has created album covers, concert posters, print ads and tour merchandise for Frank Zappa, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Elvis Costello, Otis Redding, Brian Wilson, Muddy Waters, Denise Williams, The Blues Project, Barry White, Jesse Winchester, The Bobby Fuller Four, Rick James, The Police, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Roky Erickson, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Starship, Tag Team, Joan Baez, The Velvet Underground, Moonalice, The White Stripes and many other bands and solo artists. 

Dennis was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1946. He began is interest in art and music at a very early age and later played in several rock bands with his brother David. After graduating from Dearborn’s Edsel Ford High School in 1964 – he worked full time – while attending evening art classes at the Center for Creative Studies (then known as the Society of Arts & Crafts).

He was drafted into the U.S. Army in September 1965 and spent most of 1966 stationed overseas in Turkey. In the spring of 1967, he was sent to the Presidio of San Francisco. 

After his discharge, he decided to stay in San Francisco, because of the vibrant art and music scene. His first three concert posters were designed in June of 1967 for Muddy Waters, The Youngbloods and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In the fall of 1967 Dennis formed a band called Mercury Vapor with guitarists Joe Toschi and David Green and drummer Jim Reynolds. Dennis and Joe Toschi also performed as an acoustic duo called Patchwork. His musical high point was jamming on harmonica with B.B. King at The Fillmore West in February of 1970.

He returned to Detroit in July 1970 where he continued doing art, graphic design and music. In 1975, Dennis’ song “Let Go” appeared on the “Stone Soup” album. On this recording, he was accompanied by guitarist Ted Lucas (of The Spike-Drivers and a Motown session musician), Bill Long (of The Tidal Waves) and singer-songwriter Mike Waddell. “Stone Soup” was a compilation of 11 Detroit area singer songwriters. Dennis also worked with Stanley Mouse on the Ted Lucas solo album cover design.

In 1976, he worked as a layout artist at the Detroit Sun with Gary Grimshaw, John and Leni Sinclair. Soon after this Dennis designed the fanzine Ballroom Blitz (later simply called Blitz!) for Editor Mike McDowell. This led to Dennis becoming the art director for Goldmine magazine in 1978. This monthly magazine was published for record and music memorabilia collectors.

During this time, Dennis also began to work with Detroit area record labels (Spider, IDBI, Tremor, FTM, Maverick, Westbound, Sound Of Gospel and others) as a freelance designer. 

Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s he did hundreds of flyers, posters, record sleeves for Detroit bands and performers, such as, The Rockets, The Mutants, Destroy All Monsters, Cinecyde, Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, Patti Smith, The Romantics, The Ivories, Natasha, The Reruns, Flirt, The Torpedoes, The White Lines, and The Hysteric Narcotics. He also wrote a column about the local music and recording scene for both the Detroit Metro Times and Goldmine, and he edited and designed R.P.M. (Record Profile Magazine) for 12 issues.

In 1986, Dennis worked again with Gary Grimshaw at Creem magazine in Birmingham, Michigan. Cambray Publishing (who had purchased Creem and its sister publications Metal, Creem Presents, Thrash Metal, Black Sounds and Rock Shots) relocated to Los Angeles 1987 and Dennis eventually became the art director.

After Creem was sold in 1991 to another company, Dennis started freelancing fulltime with record labels, such as, Rhino, Bomp, Del-Fi, Vanguard, Priority, Curb, Bellmark, Life, Capitol, Ichiban, Solid/Navarre, Polygram and others. While living in Hollywood, he also designed concert posters for the House of Blues, The Roxy, the Hollywood Bowl, the Whiskey A Go-Go, the El Rey Music Theatre, The Palladium and other Los Angeles area venues. 

In 2000, Dennis relocated to the San Francisco Bay area to work with his friends Gary and Laura Grimshaw at Papersong and Artists Workshop West. He also worked with friend and fellow graphic designer Mark London on the CD and LP packaging for Brian Wilson’s 2004 album “SMILE,“ along with a variety of tour merchandise.

While still living in Oakland, California, Dennis maintained a very strong connection to his Detroit roots, which can be seen in his concert poster designs for younger Motor City bands, such as, The White Stripes, The Dirtbombs, The Detroit Cobras, The Go and others. 

A number of Dennis’ concert posters appear in The Art Of Modern Rock by Paul Grushkin and Dennis King (Chronicle Books 2004). Dennis and his art also appear in American Artifact – The Rise of American Rock Posters, a 2009 documentary film about the history of rock posters. The film was written and directed by Merle Becker of Freak Films, Inc. Elements of his American Artifact movie poster artwork were used for the 2-disc DVD package.

The 2012 book entitled Classic Rock Posters was co-written and co-compiled by Dennis and the late Mick Farren (a British musician and music journalist). In America the book was published by Sterling/Metro Books. The book (packaged by Elephant Books of London) is now in its 3rd edition and has also been published in England, Canada, Australia, Italy, France and Germany. 

In summer of 2014, Dennis returned to Dearborn, Michigan to care for his late parent’s home. Thankfully, because of the internet he can still work for all his clients located in the San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles, Austin, Texas, New York City, London, Paris and other cities. 

Recently, he gave an extensive interview to the Greek online music magazine Blues GR. Dennis’ concert posters are avidly collected by music fans from Australia to Spain and are in the collections of at least six museums from Seattle to Amsterdam.

In June 2015, Dennis designed the 50th Anniversary concert poster for the legendary San Francisco band The Charlatans and the CD packaging for the group’s live CD album called “Playing In The Hall,” that was recorded in 1997 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. He also designed three commemorative posters that are included in the recently released CD box sets for Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Hot Tuna, by the Culture Factory USA label.

Early in 2016, Dennis was chosen to work on several graphic designs for the Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr endorsed “Art In A Corner” charity project in London. That same year, he also worked on a number of merchandise items for Brian Wilson’s “Pet Sounds” 50th Anniversary tour.

Dennis continues to do graphic design work for the Austin, Texas label SteadyBoy Records, San Francisco bands Moonalice and the Doobie Decibel System, the Big Beat/Ace label in London, as well as the Art House Gallery and Cultural Center venue in Berkeley, California.

Some of his more recent CD packaging and LP vinyl sleeve designs were done for Darby Slick (writer of the Jefferson Airplane’s hit song “Somebody To Love,” legendary Moby Grape member Peter Lewis, former Steve Miller Band guitarist Greg Douglass, Texas singer-songwriter Rex Foster and the Flamin’ Groovies. 

In the Spring of 2017, Dennis was interviewed by a German radio station about his graphic design work and he contributed information and graphics to Harvey Kubernick’s book 1967 and the Greek music magazine TimeMaZine’s special “Summer Of Love” issue. He also designed two posters and a t-shirt logo design for The Seeds.

In 2021, Dennis designed a special poster for the Grand Opening of the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame exhibit at the Historical Museum of Bay County, located in Bay City, Michigan. Eighteen of his posters are featured in the exhibit.

In 2023, Dennis Loren was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame along with fellow Michigan-born poster artists Gary Grimshaw, Carl Lundgren, and Stanley Mouse.