Milton Glaser is one of the most celebrated graphic designers in the United States today. Glaser created a new style of graphic communication that combines visual and intellectual concepts.
He has had the distinction of displaying his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris. In 2004 he was selected for the lifetime achievement award of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. As a Fulbright scholar, Glaser studied with the painter, Giorgio Morandi in Bologna, and is an articulate spokesman for the ethical practice of design stating that graphic designers have a responsibility to tastefully educate society and develop trends tastefully. He co-founded Push Pin Studios in 1954 and founded Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974, and continues to produce an astounding amount of work in many fields of design to this day. Some of his current clients include: Brooklyn Brewery, Jet Blue, Julliard, Rubin Museum of Art, Theatre for the New Audience, School of Visual Arts, Bread Alone, Philip Roth
Born in 1929 in New York City, Mr. Glaser studied at The Cooper Union Art School and later, as a Fulbright Scholar, attended the Academy of Fine Arts, Bologna, Italy. Throughout a celebrated career, he has designed and illustrated more than 300 posters for clients in the fields of publishing, music, theatre, film, and institutional and civic enterprise, in addition to those for commercial products and services. Mr. Glaser was a catalyst and guiding force for the establishment of the enormously influential Pushpin Studios in 1954, and New York Magazine in 1968. Since its founding in 1974, Milton Glaser Inc, has completed projects in a wide range of design disciplines, including graphic, environmental, and interior design. Mr. Glaser joined with Walter Bernard in 1983 to form WBMG, a publication-design firm that has overseen the redesign of many notable magazines and newspapers, including The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, The Village Voice, Money, and The Nation.
Among Mr. Glaser’s commissions have been the restaurants, observation deck, and permanent exhibition for the World Trade Center in New York, in 1975, and the Rainbow Room complexes for the Rockefeller Center, in 1987. Also in 1987, Mr. Glaser designed the World Health Organization’s International AIDS symbol and poster and, in 1993, he created the logo for Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Angels in America. In the Philadelphia area, Mr. Glaser’s projects have included Sesame Place, in 1981–1983, and Franklin Mills Mall, in 1986–1989.
Mr. Glaser has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Lincoln Center Gallery, New York; and the Houghton Gallery at The Cooper Union, New York. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the National Archive, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York. He is a recipient of The Society of Illustrator’s Gold Medal, the St. Gauden’s Medal from The Cooper Union, and the Prix Savignac for the World’s Most Memorable Poster of 1996, and is a member of The Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame.
Summarizing his work ethic he says: You can only work for people you like; if you have a choice never have a job; some people are toxic avoid them; professionalism is not enough; less is not necessarily more; style is not to be trusted; how you live changes your brain; doubt is better than certainty; tell the truth.
