Milton Glaser is a name you may or may not recall, though I suspect some of his many beautiful drawings will be instantly recognizable. The header image, for instance, comes from a promotional poster for the first Bob Dylan compilation album — issued while Dylan himself was still recovering from a near-fatal motorcycle accident.
As of now the Washington Post has an obituary up detailing the extensive and wide-ranging work Milton Glaser engaged on during his life.
Milton Glaser, whose creation of the I ❤ NY logo, as well as hundreds of other projects, helped make him one of the most influential graphic designers of his generation, died at an assisted-living facility in Manhattan on June 26, his 91st birthday.
The cause was complications from a stroke, said his studio manager, Ignacio Serrano.
In a career spanning six decades, Mr. Glaser lent his talents to books, periodicals and posters — the usual province of graphic designers — as well as to films, restaurant interiors and public artworks.
Milton Glaser was the only graphic designer to receive the National Medal of the Arts, bestowed upon him by President Barack Obama in 2010. Though he is best known, by far, for the I ❤ NY logo, his work in making posters, promo pieces and album covers in the 60s and 70s should not be overlooked. In addition to works at the Museum of Modern Art where the original for the Dylan poster is found, Glaser also maintained a web site curating his extensive portfolio. This link, for instance, goes to his portrait of Jerry Garcia, in memoriam.
Without going beyond fair use, I’ll leave with just a couple more snippets from the WashPo obituary:
With editor Clay Felker, he co-founded New York magazine in 1968 and went on to design hundreds of issues that “established the format for the now-ubiquitous city magazine,” said Michael Bierut, a prominent New York graphic designer.
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One of Mr. Glaser’s most important early commissions came in 1966, when Columbia Records hired him to design a poster to be packaged with the “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits” LP. He created a silhouette of Dylan with a mane of twisted, brightly colored locks. More than 6 million copies were printed, making the poster a signature artifact of the “psychedelic era.” (Mr. Glaser later designed posters for such entertainers as Mick Jagger, Aretha Franklin and Jerry Garcia.)
Next time you pass by a knick-knack shop hawking I ❤ this town mugs, remember Milton and smile. He brightened a lot of lives. May we all live so long and so well.