
We were saddened to hear of the passing of Milton Glaser, one of the icons of the twentieth and twenty first century design. He’s been one of our idols and we’ve been admiring some of his work at least since design school. Milton Glaser was an accomplished teacher and spoke wisely about design and other issues. We were particularly impressed with his adherence to the philosophy of abundance (honestly, something we could all use more of). Even though we understand why some people call for a new approach to the history of design, less focused on individual creators and more on movements and communities, giants like Milton Glaser prove that it will always be necessary to celebrate the genius of individual people. We hope Milton’s heaven is beautifully designed!
And here are some of the most iconic (or most fun) Glaser designs.
Our favorite bar none, the celebrated Dylan poster for Columbia Records. Not only is it a wonderfully memorable image, it’s about Dylan.

A pasta ad poster which looks better than a whole lot of fine art we’ve seen.

A poster for the School of Visual Arts, with such a smart use of the very matter of poster.

Of course Glaser’s probably most famous design is his I ♥ NY logo that he used for this 2001 poster calling for solidarity in New York.

An identity for Minneapolis Institute of Arts that recalls the architecture of the school.
Glaser created a bunch of fun typefaces that played with the modernist letter. This is his famous Glaser Stencil:

And Baby Teeth, the more experimental one, was used for instance on the Dylan poster.

Finally, Glaser was one of several (but not many) designers who created the full set of Shakespeare covers. His illustrations have a poetic quality.

(And a little tribute to the Dylan poster. Here‘s our original Dylan artwork to make the context clear.)
