Michael Salter marries a love of music and drawing
A single glance at one of Michael Salter’s drawings is all that it takes to know that he is a consummate draftsman. A similar thing can be said for any of his paintings, illustrations, comics, designs, and for his drumming. As he says, “Music and art kind of sneak together sometimes.”
Salter has been making art and music for most of his life. “I was wondering what I would be when I grew up, and I knew I would probably be an artist because I could draw recognizable images at age four,” he says, telling us of when he was growing up in Bradley County.
“Musically, I was influenced by the Beatles and Buddy Rich. The Beatles got me into music, in 1964 on my seventh birthday. My brother and I were sitting in the living room watching TV, and there they were. It was awesome!
“We were laughing at their hair, we thought they looked goofy and funny, but then they started playing. ‘64 was their first trip to the US, on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was the first time any of us had heard them.
“Most bands at the time had somebody writing their songs for them. The Beatles demonstrated that a band can succeed writing their own songs, being self-produced.”
The Beatles inspired Salter to start playing the drums. When he was in college at UTC, he got into jazz, and has since become one of the most sought-after percussionists in town. He also went on to become a top notch graphic designer, earning national attention for his logo designs.
He majored in Fine Art because, at that time, the university didn’t offer Graphic Design as a major. He learned some design skills from school, but was mostly self-taught. He asked a lot of questions at local print shops. This is how he learned to cut film and paint knock-outs on acetate to make something appear on a background, along with other analog design skills.
He started to think about how he was going to put food on the table for his family, “How do I make a living at this?” He got his first break while he was still in college—he was introduced to a Canadian company that made cartoon maps of cities and college campuses that was looking for artists.
The first map he did for them was of Southern Adventist College in Ooltewah. The maps included well known faculty members and campus landmarks. Next he did UTC, then Roanoke VA—the map was so big that he had to draw it in sections and put it on a huge piece of illustration board.
Next he got a job as an Art Director at Track 29 Media Company (not to be confused with the former music venue). During this time, he did a lot of T-shirt work. Everything was done with layers of film that were then transferred to silk screens, incorporating ziptone dot screens.
“If I wanted a green area on a shirt, I would do a 60 percent yellow screen, and a 40 percent blue to make it green,” he explains. “For gradients, I used fade screens—you could cut them, had to make sure the ratio was right, that the screens were lined up. You had to be able to imagine what it would look like.”
Working at Track 29 Media was Salter’s introduction to a classic nine-to-five work environment. He got into doing brochures, advertising, design, catalogs, annual reports, and illustration work when he could get it. He built his portfolio by working at a design shop downtown after his regular work hours.
He did some freelance work for the Arnold Palmer Golf Co., called Pro Group at the time, designing catalogs, directing photography of their equipment. This work led him to a job at Chattem Inc, where he worked for 30 years doing logos, catalogs, annual reports, and product photography. He made extensive use of application illustrations, images of practical applications of products, ideas, and new product concepts.
Everything was different before the industry transitioned to digital—today you have to build photo mock-ups in Photoshop, with stock photos, etc. Marker layouts, drawings of advertisements and products, were the precursor to this.
Since retiring from Chattem, Salter has done comic books, book cover illustrations, and is currently considering commissioned portraits. He is still very active as a musician, playing with multiple bands including the Monday Night Big Band at The Palms, Ryan Oyer Band, Reverse Ferrett, and Uptown Big Band.
You can find him on Facebook or email him at salterfam@comcast.net