Christina Catarello
FA 027
December 16, 2008
Prof. Klinkostein
Graphic designer Milton Glaser
Final Copy
Milton Glaser is a leading American graphic designer, illustrator, art director and teacher who has had a long and distinguished design career. Additionally, he has worked in furniture, product, and interior design. He expresses his ideas through simplified images that become symbols of the subject and his work along with his style is as ever changing as his interests and is influential worldwide.
Glaser, born June 26, 1929 was raised and currently lives in New York City. After attending the High School of Music & Art, he graduated from Cooper Union in New York City in 1951. He later studied printmaking from 1952 to 1953 at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Bologna, Italy under the renowned painter Giorgio Morandi. He cites Morandi along with Picasso as having the most influence on his work. Although they are polar opposites, Morandi’s work austere and Picasso’s work versatile, Glaser’s appreciation of both inspire him to reach his potential as a designer. He admires Morandi’s unemotional clear vision shown in his paintings and at the same time Picasso’s quest for self-expression and willingness to change.
After returning to the United States he founded the Push Pin Studios in New York in 1954 with former classmates Seymour Chwast, Edward Sorel, and Reynold Ruffins, establishing Push Pin Graphics magazine with Chwast and Ruffins in the following year. The work produced at Push Pin helped revive illustration in the 1960’s when photography and television had all but taken over the visual communications industry. Most advertising solutions at that time concentrated on television commercials and print ads using photographic images.
Although the general public has no idea who created this simple yet engaging logo, it is the most recognized and copied in the world. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 Glaser took out an ad in the New York Times and revised the famous image to read I ♥ NY More Than Ever, with a smudge in the "lower west side" of the heart.
The innovative layout first seen in New York Magazine has been copied by almost every American city magazine ever since. He remained editor and co-art director of the magazine Push Pin Graphics and president of Push Pin until he left in 1974. Shortly thereafter, he set up Milton Glaser Inc. to pursue other design interests such as interior, furniture and product design alongside his continued interest in print. He later became a partner in another New York City design studio, WBMG in 1984.
Sharing his love of design has been an integral part of Glaser’s career. From 1961 onwards Glaser has been teaching at various New York City schools including the Pratt Institute, the School of Visual Arts and Cooper Union. He is an articulate spokesman for the ethical practice of design. His current work has become increasingly personal and spiritual as exemplified by “Beatrice” from a commission for Dante’s Purgatorio.
Collections of Glaser’s work can be found at the Museum of Modern Art, Cooper Hewitt Museum, both in New York; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; National Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC to name a few. Throughout his career he has had a major impact on contemporary illustration and design. His work has won numerous awards from Art Directors Clubs, the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Society of Illustrators. He is the recipient of many honors including the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal and the St. Gaudens Medal from Cooper Union, New York in 1979 and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Lifetime Achievement Award, New York, which he received in 2004. He has received honorary doctorates from various prestigious institutions such as the School of Visual Arts, New York and the Philadelphia Museum School both in 1979 and the State University at Buffalo in 1987.
Glaser insists, “Artistic courage is usually over emphasized. But it’s the ability to leave something behind and try something else when you don’t know where you’re going.” (3.) It is Milton Glaser’s constant experimentation and willingness to explore new avenues of design that has enabled him to produce a legacy of designs and inspiration for those in the design community.
Works Cited:
1. Glaser, Milton. Graphic Design: Graphic Design. New York: Overlook Press, 1990.
2. Glaser, Milton. “Ten Things I Have Learned.” Part of the AIGA talk in London. November 22, 2001,
http://www.miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/essays/es3.html
3. Holland, Brad. “Milton Glaser Interview.” Step inside magazine, March 15, 2002,
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/milton-glaser-interview
4. Martin, Roger L. “The Positive Spiral: Six Keys to Success.” BusinessWeek, February 28, 2007,
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jan2006/id20060103_370096.htm
5. New York Magazine. New York: New York Media Holdings, LLC, September 28, 2008.
6. Perman, Stacy. “The Heart and Mind of Milton Glaser.” BusinessWeek, January 4, 2006,
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jan2006/id20060103_370096.htm
