Milton Glaser

Early life Milton Glaser was born in The Bronx, New York City. His parents, Eugene and Eleanor (née Bergman), were Hungarian Jewish immigrants. The family resided in the South Bronx. The studio "redefined and expanded the imprimatur of the designer, illustrator, and visual culture at large".

Over his career, Glaser personally designed and illustrated more than 400 posters. His work is displayed in the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Glaser was the subject of the 2008 documentary film To Inform and Delight: The World of Milton Glaser. A tribute to Glaser, still working in his 90th year, was published in The New York Times in 2019. That same year, Glaser decided to list his office townhouse at 207 East 32nd Street for sale given his age and deteriorating health. The building was sold for $7.5 million in 2020 to The New York Review of Books.

Personal life Milton Glaser was the uncle of Gabby Glaser, of the band Luscious Jackson. He was also a first cousin once removed of graphic designer Steven Brower; Glaser was Brower’s mother’s cousin. He died of a stroke and renal failure in New York City on his 91st birthday.

He married Shirley Girton on August 11, 1957. His wife also graduated from the Cooper Union.

Works Bob Dylan poster In 1966, Glaser designed a poster for Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits. It was one of Glaser's first posters. The poster depicts the profile of Dylan's face with psychedelic, swirly hair, with "Dylan" written at the bottom in Baby Teeth, one of Glaser's typefaces. Six million posters have been printed and distributed, and sell for hundreds of dollars as collectibles. The logo consists of the capital "I" and a red heart, stacked on top of the letters "NY" in American Typewriter typeface, symbolizing New York. His inspiration for the logo was Robert Indiana's LOVE design, with the four letters stacked on top of each other. "Glaser loved New York so much that he gave his work to the city for free, hoping it would become public property."

After the September 11 attacks, the logo became even more of a symbol, creating unity between the public. Glaser designed a modified version saying, "I Love New York More Than Ever", in response to the attacks. The red heart has a small blackened and burned area along one edge to symbolize the attack on the World Trade Center site.

The logo is included in MoMA's 2025 exhibition, Pirouette: Turning Points in Design, a collection of "widely recognized design icons [...] highlighting pivotal moments in design history," such as the Bean Bag chair, the Sony Walkman portable cassette player, and the NASA Worm insignia.

New York magazine In 1968, Glaser and Clay Felker founded New York magazine. The magazine was aimed at people who enjoyed reading, according to Glaser, "It was about what was happening in New York City at the time." One example of this is "The Underground Gourmet". It was about cheap restaurants in New York. Glaser wrote the column for seven years with Jerome Snyder. It was one of the most popular columns in the magazine. New York "became the model for the city magazines, and stimulated a host of imitations". In 1993, thanks to Glaser's history with New York, he was tapped by John F. Kennedy Jr., in conjunction with his partner Michael J. Berman, to work with them to create the image they were seeking for their start-up magazine George.

Typography In 1970, Glaser designed his namesake typeface, Glaser Stencil, which drew inspiration from geometric sans-serif fonts such as Futura and Avant Garde.

Fonts Designed Art Decko (Photo Lettering Inc.) Babycurls (Photo Lettering Inc.) Filmsense (1967, Photo Lettering Inc.) Stemming from this experience, a documentary titled A Social Design Story was produced.

Awards In 2004, Glaser won a National Design Award Lifetime Achievement from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum for his profound and meaningful long-term contributions to the contemporary practice of design.

Logos designs by Glaser

Publications