Milton Glaser (born in 1929) is an artist, illustrator, and graphic designer in New York, NY. His most famous design is the iconic tagline “I (heart) NY” logo. Other well known images Glaser designed include the logos and branding for the Brooklyn Brewery, and Stony Brook University.
Milton Glaser Draws and Lectures
In this short (5 min.) video, filmed in 2006, Milton Glaser explains his philosophy of drawing and illustration.
While drawing a picture of Shakespeare, Glaser explains: “For me, drawing has been the most fundamental way of engaging the world. I’m convinced that it is only through drawing that I actually look at things carefully… and the act of drawing makes me conscious of what I’m looking at. If I wasn’t drawing, I sense that I would not be seeing…” (e.g. really looking at things carefully)
In the video (above) Milton tells the story of attending a lecture by his friend, Frank Wilson (author of The Hand). Wilson explained in his lecture that “when children are prevented from drawing, their brains don’t develop fully.” Milton said he found that a very compelling argument for why “drawing is essential to understanding form”. He laments that “the art schools abandoned drawing as an activity” amid the avalanche of new computer programs (software based design tools) invading the art industry. The mechanics of “how people do art” has changed dramatically during his lifetime.
Nevertheless, reflects Mr. Glaser: “For me, drawing has always been an absolutely primary way of encountering reality. I’m astonished by drawing. I always think of every drawing as kind of a miraculous occurrence… It takes a while to do drawing that you find interesting. Curiously, people think that the difficulty in drawing is in making things look accurate. But accuracy is the least significant part of drawing.”
Books by Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser Posters (the book): 427 Examples from 1965 to 2017 – Published March 27, 2018
Milton Glaser Resources
A curated collection of helpful resources and links related to the life and work of Milton Glaser.
- M.G. Design Study Center and Archives on Flickr. This archive contain over 600 album covers, designs, drawings, illustrations, posters, sketches, and other items from the Milton Glaser collection | About | Albums | Photo-stream
- Container List is the blog of the School of Visual Arts Archives and Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives
- 7 Favorite Posters | May 7, 2018 | Christopher Bonanos selected 7 of his favorite posters from the Milton Glaser Poster Collection (book) – 427 Examples from 1965 to 2017. This article is of particular note, since it contains a beautiful collection of colorful M.G. posters. It’s published in Vulture, the cultural arts spin-off from New York Magazine, which Glaser founded (along with Clay Felker) in 1968.
You can find more information about Milton Glaser on his website, miltonglaser.com