MILTON GLASER

Milton Glaser, 1951. Milton Glaser (b.1929) is among the most celebrated graphic designers in the United States. He has had the distinction of one-man-shows at the Museum of Modern Art and the Georges Pompidou Center. In 2004 he was selected for the lifetime achievement award of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. As a Fulbright scholar, Glaser studied with the painter, Giorgio Morandi in Bologna, and is an articulate spokesman for the ethical practice of design. He opened Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974, and continues to produce an astounding amount of work in many fields of design to this day.

Glaser: The Founder of American Graphic Design Graphic Design is the art of communication, stylizing, and problem-solving through the use of type, space, and image. The field is considered a subset of visual communication and communication design, but sometimes the term "graphic design" is used interchangeably with these due to overlapping skills involved. Milton Glaser To many, Milton Glaser is the embodiment of American graphic design during the latter half of this century. His presence and impact on the profession internationally is formidable. Immensely creative and articulate, he is a modern renaissance man — one of a rare breed of intellectual designer-illustrators, who brings a depth of understanding and conceptual thinking, combined with a diverse richness of visual language, to his highly inventive and individualistic work. * His artwork has been featured in exhibits worldwide, including one-man shows at both the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His work is in the permanent collections of many museums. Glaser also is a renowned graphic and architectural designer with a body of work ranging from iconic logos to complete graphic and decorative programs for the restaurants in the World Trade Center in New York. Glaser is an influential figure in both the design and education communities and has contributed essays and granted interviews extensively on design. Among many awards throughout the years, he received the 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, for his profound and meaningful long-term contribution to the contemporary practice of design.

A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. Logos are either purely graphic (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization (a logotype or wordmark). The “I Love New York” logo was the basis of an advertising campaign and was created in 1977 by Milton Glaser. One of his most famous and iconic logos, it has been used since then to promote tourism in New York City and New York state. The trademarked logo with the ‘heart’ has been copied worldwide, and appears in souvenir shops and brochures throughout the world, some licensed, many not. This is one of the world’s most famous logos.

Common uses of graphic design include identity (logos and branding), publications (magazines, newspapers and books), print advertisements, posters, billboards, website graphics and elements, signs and product packaging. This is a poster for a musician named Bob Dylan. Look at the colors in the hair, the profile in silhouette, and the typefaces he chose. He tried to represent the artist and his music though images and type. These design solutions often tell a story or communicate a message. What type of music do you think the artist might sing?

Book Cover Designs by Milton Glaser

New York magazine logo, 1968. New York magazine and logo, founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, was brasher and less polite, and established itself as a cradle of New Journalism. Things to think about: Milton Glaser was not only a graphic designer, he also started a magazine as a publisher, investor, and entrepreneur.

More logo designs created by Milton Glaser

Glaser is famous for his posters, magazine covers, packaging designs, logos, and many other forms of printed communications throughout his career in advertising, publishing and design.

Logo design and packaging for Brooklyn Brewery items. If you had to design a ‘logo’ for someone or yourself, how would you do it? You would have to think about having the logo be on everything that you made for that product. What would it look like? Can you think of some logos that you like?

Examples of different versions that were part of the work to create one logo design but also show the different products the brand represents. There are many different versions and colors. How many would you do until you were happy with them? Which one do you like the best? How would you represent different flavors of products like flavored water for example? If you had to do a logo to represent yourself, what would you do?

Logo designs can be on things as small as a piece of paper on your desk, or as large as an airplane. What would you design so people could see it and remember it? People remember pictures better than words, so how would you show the words and the pictures together to create your own mark? This is some work Milton Glaser did for Jet Blue in New York, an airline carrier we have here in Charlotte.

Milton Glaser started his ideas with sketches, like many artists. Probably like you do too! How many of you sketch your ideas out first? These were some of his original sketches for the Ruben Museum. Below is the final logo design. Notice it’s very different than the originals, so sometimes you have to have many ideas!

Poster Designs

More magazine and book designs by Milton Glaser. When you design a book or a magazine, what do you need it to say on the cover in order to attract attention? What would you put on the cover so someone would think it was interesting enough to read or to pick up?

More logo designs.

President Barack Obama presented the 2009 National Medal of Arts to ten recipients for their outstanding achievements and support of the arts. Milton Glaser was one of these, a first for a Graphic Designer. The medals were presented by the president and Mrs. Michele Obama in an East Room ceremony at the White House. The National Medal of Arts is a White House initiative managed by the National Endowment for the Arts. Each year, the NEA organizes and oversees the National Medal of Arts nomination process and notifies the artists of their selection to receive a medal, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence.

The next two slides are For the older grades ONLY: Talk about how graphic artists use visual poster design and words to make statements or get people involved in aware of global events, like what happened in Darfur. This was a famous poster series Glaser did for Darfur in 2007.

September 11, 2001. This was a poster that Milton created after September 11, 2001. To honor the victims and to raise money for their families. All proceeds went to the families of the victims of September 11, 2001.

Have fun with activities and discussion! Graphic Translation, Milton Glaser.