Celebrating and recognizing the life and achievements of Milton Glaser: one of the most influential graphic designers in American History.
The greatest artistic fame might be the kind where few people know your name but everyone knows your work, because it is as palpable in modern culture as sliced bread or the wheel. There aren’t many artists that have achieved this status in their lifetime, but Milton Glaser, the most celebrated graphic designer in American history, did.
Born on June 26, 1929, Milton Glaser died exactly 91 years later on his birthday, June 26, 2020, in his beloved city of New York, where he spent his entire life. To mark a week since his passing, we recognize the American Icon and his most influential work throughout the last several decades, including an unreleased symbol that he was working on up until his death.
Initially sketched in the back of the cab, this design was created in 1977 for a New York State advertising campaign. Glaser’s goal was to raise tourism as well as New Yorkers’ spirits during the financial crisis of the time.
If you’ve ever mosied down the bustling streets of New York City, you’ve passed by sidewalk vendors with t-shirts, coffee mugs, and miscellaneous chachkies bearing the “I ♥ NY” design, Milton Glaser’s best known project. Produced in 1977, “I ♥ NY” expressed Glaser’s pride for his city, and it soon became a universally-recognized symbol. Following the tragedy of 9/11, the design was no longer seen as just an emblem for tourist garb, but it was embraced as a hopeful message for New York and America as a whole.
Glaser rose to fame after he created this psychedelic style poster for Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits album in 1967.
Glaser’s work combined a deep knowledge of art history with Pop-culture appeal. In a 1966 project, Glaser applied his signature psychedelic style to a poster he designed for American singer Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Album. His inspiration behind the silhouette stemmed from a self-portrait created by French-American artist Marcel Duchamp. Though pure artistry was never Glaser’s primary focus, his intent through graphic design was to communicate. “The professional requirement to succeed demands that the work be both understandable and motivating to its target audience,” Glasser wrote in his book “In Search of the Miraculous,” published in 2012. Throughout his work, he exhibited a drive to connect with viewers and reach them wherever they were.
In 1968, Glaser founded the culture, politics, and lifestyle magazine, New York Magazine. He produced the infamous curly text for the magazine’s logo, and served as the President and Design Director until 1977.
Unreleased until after his death, Glaser designed “Together” to spread the message that “we are not alone” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Milton Glaser continued to create monumental designs until his last days. His most recent graphic design project represented the idea of collectivity during the forced isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic. The artist told the New York Times, he hoped that the project, titled “Together,” would be distributed to public schools across the city to spread the message that “we are not alone”.
“’We’re all in this together’ has been reiterated a thousand times, but you can create the symbolic equivalent of that phrase by just using the word ‘together’, and then making those letters [look] as though they are all different, but all related,” he told the New York Times.
As we navigate through uncertain times, we look to Milton Glaser as inspiration for hope. Glaser addressed many controversial, political, and even taboo subjects through his art. We hope to carry the same grit, persistence, awareness throughout our work, as well.
To view more of his significant works, click here.
Read the full story on Milton Glaser in the New Yorker, here.