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Milton Glaser is an American graphic designer who has been in the business for over 50 years. He is one of the most celebrated graphic designers in history. Some of his famous designs include the I ♥ NY logo and the Bob Dylan poster. He continues to be a massive influence in the design world, and his work continues to inspire other designers around the globe.
If you’re a graphic designer or an aspiring one, it's worth looking at some of his work to see how he pioneered and elevated the field. But if you’re an artist, his philosophy and approach to design are worth looking into.
If you're looking for some inspiration or want to learn more about the art form, his work is a great place to start. In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at Glaser's career and some of his most famous designs. Put on your thinking cap and start learning from a master.
Humble Beginnings and Education
Milton Glaser is a New York City-based graphic designer born in the Bronx. His parents, Eugene and Eleanor (née Bergman), were Hungarian Jewish immigrants. His father had a dry cleaning and tailoring business, while his mother was a stay-at-home mom. Before joining the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan, Glaser attended drawing classes with artists Raphael and Moses Soyer.
In 1951, Glaser graduated from Cooper Union in New York City. Then, from 1952 to 1953, he studied printmaking in Italy with Giorgio Morandi. With Seymour Chwast, Reynold Ruffins, and Edward Sorel, Glaser started the graphic design firm Pushpin Studio in New York in 1954. The naturalistic illustration was losing its dominance as the leading mass-media imaging approach at the time, and photography and television were profoundly transforming the visual-communications business.
To create a unique conceptual approach to graphic design, Glaser and the Pushpin artists drew from their childhood love of comic books, an awareness of modern art garnered from their college days and the art of non-Western cultures. These artists' work presented ideas about the subject through simplified visuals that served as signs and symbols, rather than using typical storytelling tactics.
Career and Popular Works
By 1960, Glaser and Chwast had grown increasingly active in typography and visual communication design as a whole. Their method, in which one designer crafts the project's concept, overall page design, type or lettering, and image, was reminiscent of Art Nouveau poster painters like Jules Chéret and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Glaser's inlay poster (1967) for a Bob Dylan record album is an example of such an overall design. He combined curved lines and flat color to create an archetypal image in this piece, which became a cultural icon. Babyteeth, a typeface designed by Glaser, spells out Dylan's name in the image.
Glaser was the art director of New York Magazine, which he co-founded with Clay Felker from 1968 to 1976. Glaser was the Village Voice's vice president and design director from 1975 until 1977. His breadth of creative activities grew to include magazine art direction, packaging, corporate visual identity, fine art, and shop and restaurant design as his career evolved in the second half of the twentieth century. His willingness to try new things and explore new areas allowed him to create various visual concepts.
Glaser has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of Arts (2009). In the documentary To Inform and Delight, he was profiled (2008).
Milton Glaser's Top 5 Graphic Design Projects
1. I ♥ NY Campaign
The distinctive I ♥ NY logo was created in 1977 as part of an advertising campaign commissioned by New York State to encourage tourism and lift the spirits of New Yorkers following the city's fiscal crisis.
For its "informality and literary reference," as well as the fact that it created a visual contrast to the sensuous heart, Glaser, who designed the logo pro bono, used lettering comparable to the well-known American Typewriter font.
2. Bob Dylan Poster for CBS Records
In 1967, Glaser created a poster for Columbia Records to promote Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits album, which featured his distinctive psychedelic style. As a result of the work, he gained popularity as a graphic designer.
Dylan's side profile is depicted as a black silhouette on the billboard, presenting a dramatic contrast to the rainbow-colored, swirling lines supposed to mimic the singer's curly locks, which are based on a self-portrait by French-American artist Marcel Duchamp.
3. Mad Men Poster for AMC
In 2014, Glaser developed a set of Art Nouveau-style posters and animations to promote the final season of the American drama television series Mad Men.
The design contains the show's distinctive silhouette of protagonist Don Draper set against a backdrop of an illustration of a woman's head next to a glass filled with a drink, as seen in the show's opening credits.
4. New York Magazine Logo
As a competitor to The New Yorker, Glaser founded New York magazine in 1968 with American editor Clay Felker. Until 1977, he was president and design director at this company.
Glaser developed a poster titled New York Is About New York to advertise the newspaper, which depicted the city's Empire State Building at four distinct times, and designed the curly logo for the life, culture, politics, and style that all represent the magazine.
5. Together
Glaser was working on a graphic piece that would convey the idea of collectivity under the forced isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic up to his death on June 26, 2020.
According to the New York Times, the artist anticipated that his artwork, titled Together, would be distributed to public schools throughout the city to disseminate the message that "we are not alone."
Conclusion
If you're an aspiring graphic designer, Milton Glaser is a name you should know. He's one of the most iconic and successful designers in history, and his work serves as an inspiration for anyone who wants to make a career out of designing graphics. What separates Mr. Glaser from the rest is his passion and dedication to his craft. He didn't achieve success instantly though. It took years of hard work and patience to build a foundation for his illustrious career.
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(Image credit: Stephen Coles on Flickr)
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