Milton Glaser, the great master of Graphic design
Milton Glaser is a design legend, who was active up to the age of 91 which was when he passed away a few days ago, coincidentally on the day of his birthday.
He was born in the Bronx (New York) in 1929 and his privileged mind has been capable of taking on design projects that ranged from branding – he recreated the logo for the publishing house of DC Comics and thought up the logo for the Brooklyn Brewery, amongst many others…- to publishing design, from advertising posters – he created more than 300 – and interior design to drawing, his great passion. He was able to develop this facet through his agency Push Pin Studios, that he founded together with other student friends, and through which he was able to defend the figure of designer- illustrator.
“There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.”
Milton changed the language of visual culture in the United States of the 60s and 70s with his psychedelic, colourful and disruptive posters, magazines, book covers, etc. His three most well known works, amongst endless others, are:
The Bob Dylan poster that accompanied the album Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits – one of the most popular works in the history of music
The iconic I Love New York for which he never saw a cent, in spite of it having helped to rescue the decadent image of New York… and despite it being the design that has been imitated most frequently in the history of humankind
The editorial work carried out in New York magazine together with Clay Felker. Although he did also work for publications such as Paris Match, L´Express, Esquire or La Vanguardia (1987-1989) to make changes to the latter coinciding with its transition into colour.
Milton Glaser’s talent has marked the history of graphic design for decades and his impact on the profession has been brutal His eclectic stye and his creative conception closer to those of an artist than to those of a designer allowed him to create unique pieces and many of them are timeless and also allowed him to change illustration into a new category of artistic advertising.
“Art is a form of meditation both for the person that creates it and for the person who contemplates it.”
Interesting facts:
As a child, his cousin drew a bird for him on a paper bag to keep him entertained but not only did he like that gesture, but he was mesmerized to see that a pencil could create life. It was the detonator he needed to realize that he wanted to devote his life to creating through drawing.
Milton Glaser studied at the prestigious Cooper Union in New York and he accessed the Academy of the Arts in Bologne by means of a Fulbright scholarship, where he coincided with the famous 20th century painter Giorgio Morandi.
In 1974, Milton Glaser set up his own company (Milton Glaser Inc) that is still active today.
In 2009, he received the National Medal of Arts from the then president Barack Obama.
In 1968, he co-directed Mickey Mouse in Vietnam. A greatly controversial production where the popular Disney mouse ends up with a bullet in his head, a metaphor to condemn military conflict.
Recently, in 2017, he designed the posters to fight against President Trump. A work that could be seen in the subway stations in New York city.
Currently, Milton Glaser is permanently represented in several museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA).
