Milton Glaser
Encyclopedia
Milton Glaser is a graphic designer
, best known for the I Love New York
logo, his "Bob Dylan
" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics
from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery
" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker
in 1968.
(now Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts
), graduated from the Cooper Union
in 1951 and later, via a Fulbright Scholarship, the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna
under Giorgio Morandi
He was greatly inspired by his sister's partner, who studied typography at a great depth at the current time.
In 1954 Glaser was a founder, and president, of Push Pin Studios
formed with several of his Cooper Union classmates. Glaser's work is characterized by directness, simplicity and originality. He uses any medium or style to solve the problem at hand. His style ranges wildly from primitive to avant garde in his countless book jackets, album covers, advertisements and direct mail pieces and magazine illustrations. He started his own studio, Milton Glaser, Inc, in 1974. This led to his involvement with an increasingly wide diversity of projects, ranging from the design of New York Magazine, of which he was a co-founder, to a 600-foot mural for the Federal Office Building in Indianapolis
.
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, the Society of Illustrators and the Type Directors Club
. In 1979 he was made Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
and his work is included in the Museum of Modern Art
, the Victoria and Albert Museum
, the Israel Museum
and the Musee de l'affiche in Paris
. Glaser has taught at both the School of Visual Arts
and at Cooper Union
in New York City
. He is a member of Alliance Graphique International (AGI).
Glaser is the subject of the 2009 documentary film To Inform & Delight: The World of Milton Glaser.
In addition to Milton, this small Manhattan studio employs three designers (Nicholas Pattison, Sue Walsh, and Molly Kromhout) and a studio manager (Scarlett Rigby).
by President Barack Obama
.
• Museum of Modern Art, New York (1975)
• Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1977)
• Lincoln Center Gallery, New York (1981)
• Houghton Gallery, The Cooper Union, New York (1984)
• Vicenza Museum (1989)
• Galleria Communale d’Arte Moderna, Bologna (1989)
In 1991, he was commissioned by the Italian government to create an exhibition in tribute to the Italian artist, Piero della Francesca, for part of the celebrations on the occasion of his 500th anniversary. This show opened in Arezzo, Italy and one year later (under the sponsorship of Campari) moved to Milan. In 1994, The Cooper Union, Mr. Glaser’s alma mater, hosted the show in New York.
In 1992, an exhibition of drawings titled “The Imaginary Life of Claude Monet” opened at Nuages Gallery, Italy, and in 1995, an adapted version of this show was exhibited in Japan’s Creation Gallery. 1995 also brought a Glaser exhibition to the Art Institute of Boston.
In 1997, the Suntory Museum, Japan, mounted a major retrospective of The Pushpin Studios, featuring past and present works by Milton Glaser and other Pushpin artists. In October 1999, Mr. Glaser’s illustrations of Dante’s Purgatorio were exhibited at the Nuages Gallery in Milan, Italy, and Nuages organized a large exhibition of Mr. Glaser’s work during the 2000 Carnevale in Venice.
Mr. Glaser's work is now represented in the permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the National Archive, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York.
Graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
, best known for the I Love New York
I Love New York
I Love New York is both a logo and a song that are the basis of an advertising campaign and have been used since the mid-1970s to promote tourism in New York City, and later to promote New York State as well. The trademarked logo appears in souvenir shops and brochures throughout the state, some...
logo, his "Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery
Brooklyn Brewery
Brooklyn Brewery was started in 1987 by former Associated Press correspondent Steve Hindy and former Chemical Bank lending officer Tom Potter. Hindy learned to brew beer during a six year stay in various Middle Eastern nations such as Saudi Arabia and Syria, where possession and consumption of...
" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker
Clay Felker
Clay Schuette Felker was an American magazine editor and journalist who founded New York Magazine in 1968. He was known for bringing large numbers of journalists into the profession...
in 1968.
Biography
Glaser was born into a Hungarian Jewish family in New York. Glaser was educated at Manhattan's High School of Music & ArtThe High School of Music & Art
The High School of Music & Art, informally known as "Music & Art", was a public alternative high school at 443-465 West 135th Street, New York, New York, USA that existed from 1936 through 1984, and then merged into the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing...
(now Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts is a high school specializing in teaching visual arts and performing arts, located near Lincoln Center and the Juilliard School in the Lincoln Center district of Manhattan, on Amsterdam Avenue...
), graduated from the Cooper Union
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
in 1951 and later, via a Fulbright Scholarship, the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
under Giorgio Morandi
Giorgio Morandi
Giorgio Morandi was an Italian painter and printmaker who specialized in still life. His paintings are noted for their tonal subtlety in depicting apparently simple subjects, which were limited mainly to vases, bottles, bowls, flowers, and landscapes.-Biography:Giorgio Morandi was born in Bologna...
He was greatly inspired by his sister's partner, who studied typography at a great depth at the current time.
In 1954 Glaser was a founder, and president, of Push Pin Studios
Push Pin Studios
Push Pin Studios is a graphic design and illustration studio formed in New York City in 1954. Cooper Union graduates Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast, Reynold Ruffins, and Edward Sorel founded the studio....
formed with several of his Cooper Union classmates. Glaser's work is characterized by directness, simplicity and originality. He uses any medium or style to solve the problem at hand. His style ranges wildly from primitive to avant garde in his countless book jackets, album covers, advertisements and direct mail pieces and magazine illustrations. He started his own studio, Milton Glaser, Inc, in 1974. This led to his involvement with an increasingly wide diversity of projects, ranging from the design of New York Magazine, of which he was a co-founder, to a 600-foot mural for the Federal Office Building in Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
.
Throughout his career he has had a major impact on contemporary illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
and design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
. His work has won numerous awards from Art Directors Clubs, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Society of Illustrators and the Type Directors Club
Type Directors Club
The Type Directors Club is an international organization for those devoted to excellence in typography in all its forms. Created in 1946, the organization’s mission is to raise the standards of typography and related fields within the graphic arts. The TDC supports research and education, and...
. In 1979 he was made Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
and his work is included in the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
, the Israel Museum
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
and the Musee de l'affiche in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Glaser has taught at both the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
and at Cooper Union
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He is a member of Alliance Graphique International (AGI).
Glaser is the subject of the 2009 documentary film To Inform & Delight: The World of Milton Glaser.
Milton Glaser Inc.
Milton Glaser, Inc. was established in 1974 in Manhattan, and is still producing work in a wide range of design disciplines, including: corporate identities (logos, stationery, brochures, signage, website design, and annual reports), environmental and interior design (exhibitions, interiors and exteriors of restaurants, shopping malls, supermarkets, hotels, and other retail environments), packaging (food and beverage packaging), and product design. Some of the firm's current clients include The Brooklyn Brewery, Jet Blue, Target, Coach, Trump, Eleven Madison Park, Alessi, Juilliard, The Rubin Museum of Art, Theatre For A New Audience, The School of Visual Arts, Bread Alone, and Philip Roth, amongst others.In addition to Milton, this small Manhattan studio employs three designers (Nicholas Pattison, Sue Walsh, and Molly Kromhout) and a studio manager (Scarlett Rigby).
Awards
In 2004, Glaser won a Lifetime Achievement award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. In 2009, he was awarded the National Medal of ArtsNational Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...
by President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
Shows
In addition to commercial enterprises, Milton Glaser’s work has been exhibited world-wide. His most notable single-man shows include:• Museum of Modern Art, New York (1975)
• Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1977)
• Lincoln Center Gallery, New York (1981)
• Houghton Gallery, The Cooper Union, New York (1984)
• Vicenza Museum (1989)
• Galleria Communale d’Arte Moderna, Bologna (1989)
In 1991, he was commissioned by the Italian government to create an exhibition in tribute to the Italian artist, Piero della Francesca, for part of the celebrations on the occasion of his 500th anniversary. This show opened in Arezzo, Italy and one year later (under the sponsorship of Campari) moved to Milan. In 1994, The Cooper Union, Mr. Glaser’s alma mater, hosted the show in New York.
In 1992, an exhibition of drawings titled “The Imaginary Life of Claude Monet” opened at Nuages Gallery, Italy, and in 1995, an adapted version of this show was exhibited in Japan’s Creation Gallery. 1995 also brought a Glaser exhibition to the Art Institute of Boston.
In 1997, the Suntory Museum, Japan, mounted a major retrospective of The Pushpin Studios, featuring past and present works by Milton Glaser and other Pushpin artists. In October 1999, Mr. Glaser’s illustrations of Dante’s Purgatorio were exhibited at the Nuages Gallery in Milan, Italy, and Nuages organized a large exhibition of Mr. Glaser’s work during the 2000 Carnevale in Venice.
Mr. Glaser's work is now represented in the permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the National Archive, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York.
See also
- First Things First 2000 manifestoFirst things first 2000 ManifestoThe First Things First 2000 manifesto, launched by Adbusters magazine in 1999, was an updated version of the earlier First Things First manifesto written and published in 1964 by Ken Garland, a British designer....
- EmigreEmigre magazineEmigre was a graphic design magazine published by Emigre Graphics between 1984 and 2005; it was first published in 1984 in San Francisco, California, USA...
51: First Things First, 1999. http://www.emigre.com/EMag.php?issue=51
External links
- Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives
- 'Milton Glaser: to Inform and Delight' - the 2008 Documentary
- Art Is Work A Hillmancurtis short documentary of Glaser
- Magazine Cover: Bob Lape's Restaurant Index
- Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work
- Interview with Glaser
- Pete Hamill on Milton Glaser
- MILTON GLASER DRAWS & LECTURES by C. Coy
- Postage stamps by Milton Glaser
- Ahora: Interview with Milton Glaser on Print