The Knicks Logo Almost Included the Empire State Building
Sports logos are some of the most recognized pieces of graphic design in the world. Fans wear them on jerseys, tattoo them on their skin, and display them in their homes with fierce pride. But what most fans never see is the creative process — the rejected concepts, the near-misses, and the design decisions that could have changed an iconic brand forever. One of the most fascinating of these untold stories belongs to the New York Knicks, whose logo almost featured one of the most recognizable structures on earth: the Empire State Building.
Who Is Michael Doret?
To understand how the Knicks logo came so close to looking completely different, you first need to know about the man behind the design. Michael Doret is a New York City-based illustrator and designer whose career has been defined by bold typography, vibrant color, and an unmistakable retro-modern aesthetic. By 1991, Doret had already built a strong reputation as a freelance talent, promoting his services through prestigious industry publications like American Showcase and The Black Book — two directories widely distributed to art departments, design studios, and advertising agencies across the country.
These publications were the LinkedIn of their era, a curated portfolio showcase that connected creative professionals with major clients. For Doret, they worked. His client list had grown to include some of the biggest names in entertainment, publishing, and sports — making him a go-to choice when organizations needed something visually distinctive and built to last.
How the Knicks Commission Came About
In 1991, the New York Knicks decided it was time for a visual refresh. The NBA was evolving rapidly during this period, riding the wave of global popularity driven by stars like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and a rising Michael Jordan. Franchises across the league were rethinking their identities to better capture the excitement of the sport and appeal to a new generation of fans.
The Knicks reached out to Doret, and he got to work developing concepts for a new logo. For any designer, this kind of commission is both an incredible opportunity and a serious challenge. The logo would need to feel authentically New York, honor the team's long history, and stand up on merchandise, television broadcasts, and signage for potentially decades to come.
The Empire State Building Concept
Here is where the story takes its most intriguing turn. Among the early concepts Doret explored was an idea that leaned heavily into the identity of New York City itself — incorporating the Empire State Building into the logo's design. The notion made a certain kind of intuitive sense. The Empire State Building is one of the most universally recognized symbols of New York, and a logo built around it would have instantly communicated the team's home city to anyone, anywhere in the world.
It would have been bold, cinematic, and deeply tied to the urban character of Manhattan. For a team that prides itself on representing the capital of the basketball world, anchoring the logo to one of architecture's greatest icons had real creative logic behind it.
Ultimately, however, the concept was set aside. The final direction Doret developed moved away from architectural symbolism and leaned instead into typography and the visual energy of the city in a more abstract sense — resulting in the wordmark-driven logo that Knicks fans came to know through the 1990s and beyond.
Why Logo Design Decisions Matter
The story of the almost-Empire-State-Building Knicks logo is a compelling reminder of just how many decisions go into a single piece of design — and how different the outcome could have been with just one different choice. Sports logos in particular carry an enormous amount of cultural weight.
- They become shorthand for an entire franchise, city, and fanbase.
- They appear on millions of pieces of merchandise, generating revenue for decades.
- They are the first visual impression a new fan receives, shaping emotional associations from the very beginning.
- They can either age gracefully or become a dated relic, depending on how well they balance timelessness with contemporary relevance.
A logo featuring the Empire State Building might have been spectacular — or it might have boxed the Knicks into a hyper-literal identity that eventually felt limiting. These are exactly the kinds of trade-offs professional designers like Doret must weigh carefully with every commission.
Michael Doret's Legacy in Sports Design
Regardless of which specific concept made the final cut, Doret's work on the Knicks project is part of a broader legacy of sophisticated, typographically rich design that has influenced sports branding for generations. His approach — treating letterforms and visual composition with the same rigor that a fine artist would apply to a painting — helped define what premium sports identity could look like in the modern era.
His work serves as a reminder that behind every logo fans take for granted, there is a designer who made hundreds of deliberate choices, explored roads not taken, and ultimately delivered something meant to outlive any single season.
A Piece of Design History Worth Knowing
The Knicks logo that almost featured the Empire State Building never made it to a jersey or a court, but its story deserves to be told. It speaks to the creative richness of the design process, the cultural stakes of sports branding, and the talent of artists like Michael Doret who shape the visual language of our favorite teams — often without ever receiving the recognition their craft deserves. Next time you see the Knicks wordmark, spare a thought for the road not taken, and the skyscraper that almost made the cut.