Friday Feature – 09/07/2021 – Milton Glaser

Name: Milton Glaser 
Date of Birth: 26^th June 1929 
Date of Death: 26^th June 2020
Alma Mater:
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York City, USA
Academy of Fine Arts, Bologna, Italy

Milton Glaser was an American graphic designer. His work included the I Love New York logo as well as the logos for DC Comics and Brooklyn Brewery. He has also created several typefaces, posters, publications and architectural designs. Throughout his long career, He received many awards for his work, including the National Medal of the Arts award from President Barack Obama in 2009. The first graphic designer ever to do so.

Glaser was born on June 26, 1929, in The Bronx, New York City to Hungarian Jewish immigrants who resided in the South Bronx. His father owned a dry-cleaning and tailoring shop, and his mother was a homemaker. Glaser took drawing classes with artists Raphael and Moses Soyer, before attending the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan.

He co-founded Push Pin Studios in 1954 and New York Magazine in 1968. He then established Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974. His artwork has been featured in exhibits, and museums worldwide. 

In 1954, Glaser co-founded Push Pin Studios along with Reynold Ruffins, Seymour Chwast, and Edward Sorel. Glaser and Chwast, directed the organization for 20 years, exerting a powerful influence on the direction of world graphic design. Glaser co-founded New York magazine with in 1968, where he was president and design director until 1977. The publication became the benchmark for all future city magazines. In 1983, Glaser teamed with Walter Bernard to form publication design firm WBMG. Located in New York City, they have designed more than 50 magazines, newspapers and periodicals around the world, including complete redesigns of three major newspapers.

Milton Glaser, Inc. was established in 1974. The work produced at this Manhattan studio encompasses a wide range of design disciplines. In the area of print graphics, the studio produces identity programs for corporate and institutional marketing purposes — including logos, stationery, brochures, signage, and annual reports. In the field of environmental and interior design, the firm has conceptualized and site-supervised the fabrication of numerous products, exhibitions, interiors and exteriors of restaurants, shopping malls, supermarkets, hotels, and other retail and commercial environments.

Glaser is also personally responsible for the design and illustration of more than 300 posters for clients in the areas of publishing, music, theatre, film, institutional and civic enterprise, as well as those for commercial products and services.

“There are three responses to a piece of design—yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.”

Milton Glaser

After suffering serious injuries in a motorcycle accident in 1966, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was rendered bedridden and rumoured to be dead. To generate positive publicity for his forthcoming album, Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, CBS records commissioned Milton Glaser to design a special poster to be packaged with the album. Taking inspiration from a Marcel Duchamp self-portrait, Glaser depicted Dylan in profile, his abundant curly hair rendered in saturated colours that stood out in high contrast from the white ground. The energetic design with its swirling streams of colour evokes the visual effects of the psychedelic drugs that were gaining popularity amongst members of the counterculture.

One of Glaser’s most recognizable works is his I Love New York logo. The logo was designed in 1976 using red crayon and scrap paper, during a taxi ride. The original drawing is held in the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.

The design was part of a major advertising campaign by the State of New York to increase tourism. The logo consists of the capital “I” and a red heart, stacked on top of the letters “NY” in American Typewriter typeface, symbolizing New York. His inspiration for the logo was Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture, with the four letters stacked on top of each other. Glaser loved New York so much that he gave his work to the city for free, hoping it would become public property.

The logo earns New York state $30 million each year and has become a pop culture icon. It can be seen throughout New York City as it is reproduced on everything from coffee cups to T-shirts and hats.

After the September 11 Terrorist attacks, the logo became even more of a symbol, creating unity between the public. Glaser designed a modified version saying, “I Love New York More than Ever”, in response to the attacks. The red Heart has a small blackened and burned area along one edge to symbolize the attack on the World Trade Center site.

Milton Glaser is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Chase Manhattan Bank, New York; the National Archive, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York.

In addition to his National Medal of Arts in 2009, Glaser won a National Design Award Lifetime Achievement from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum to commemorate his profound and meaningful long-term contributions to the practice of design. Then, in 2015, The New Jewish Home organisation invited Glaser to be an inductee for their Eight Over Eighty Gala.

Glaser died in New York City on 26^th June 2020. He suffered a stroke and renal failure on his 91st birthday. He is survived by his wife, Shirley.