Milton Glaser, co-founder of New York Magazine and famous graphic designer behind the “I ♥ NY” logo, died, according to the magazine.
“On behalf of the New York family, my thoughts go out to Milton’s loved ones today, especially his wife Shirley. We lost a brilliant designer and great New Yorker,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in a statement to CNN. .
A street vendor holds an “I ♥ NY” t-shirt in 2009. Credit: George Rose / Getty Images
Born in 1929, Glaser began his design career at the Cooper Union in New York for the Advancement of Science and Art. He then launched Push Pin Studios in 1954 with several former classmates, who “exerted a powerful influence in the direction of global graphic design,” according to the Glaser website.
In 1968 Glaser founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker, and served as President and Design Director until 1977.
Glaser is perhaps best known for designing the iconic and ubiquitous “I ♥ NY” logo. It was created in 1977 to promote tourism in New York State amid the city’s crime wave, infamous blackout, and widespread economic hardship.
His conceptual sketch, hastily scribbled in red on a paper envelope, is part of the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Before that, Glaser won widespread acclaim for a psychedelic poster from the 1960s for Bob Dylan’s album “Greatest Hits”.
Glaser’s fame grew with this poster for a Bob Dylan album in the 1960s. Credit: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
Beyond his best-known designs, Glaser’s work is featured in permanent collections at MoMA, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and the National Archive and Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, among others.
Glaser was the only graphic artist to have solo exhibitions at both the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, according to the National Endowment of the Arts.
He received the National Medal of Arts in 2009.
Glaser designed the Brooklyn Brewery labels
Credit: Mike Lawrie / Getty Images North America / Getty Images
“Milton Glaser’s work is everywhere: in logos in his supermarket, on signs he sees from the sidewalk and in the identity of New York,” the editors of the magazine wrote in a statement. Not to mention on his screens and in his mailbox, on the logo on the cover he drew for the first issue of New York Magazine: it’s so durable that we still use it 52 years later. Much of our magazine’s DNA It encodes Milton’s visual ideas of intelligence and sensitivity from New York. We are sad to know that he is gone, but what a great life he lived. “
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