Milton Glaser

“I ?? NY,” written in bold, slightly rounded letters was one of the late designer Milton Glaser’s many gifts to the world. Beginning in the early 1960s, Glaser developed a singular and slightly playful aesthetic that came to visually define that tumultuous decade and most of the next. His use of bright colors and bold graphic lines in print advertising and marketing materials provided groovy visual distractions in an era that was dominated by the dual traumas of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War.

Born in the Bronx, New York, to Hungarian immigrants, Glaser studied art at Cooper Union in the 1950s. After graduation, he joined with former classmates to form Push Pin Studios, a design firm that quickly became known for brightly colored book jackets and record covers that featured a distinctly modern take on the surrealist and art deco styles of previous generations. Glaser went on to co-found New York magazine in 1968 and six years later started his own design firm, Milton Glaser Inc. This portrait of Glaser, made by photographer Yousuf Karsh in 1990, shows him with pencil in hand, leaning over a blank sheet of paper atop a drafting table. Glaser designed the poster that hangs on the wall behind him for New York’s School of Visual Arts, which is now home to the Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives.

In the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, his “I ?? NY” campaign was revived by the city, with the coda “now more than ever.” The message stood as a testament to the resilience of Glaser’s hometown and also the power of his life’s work.