Milton Glaser

Born in the Bronx to Jewish immigrants from Hungary, Glaser was a public-school child of the stickball generation.¹ Glaser recalled that his mother supported his artistic ambitions while his father, a tailor, initially resisted.⁴ As a Fulbright scholar, Glaser studied with painter Giorgio Morandi in Bologna.⁵

In 1954, Glaser and fellow Cooper Union alumni founded Push Pin Studios, with Seymour Chwast as a co-founder.^2,4 Glaser co-founded New York magazine, which began as an independent publication in 1968 after the New York Herald Tribune closed; he was part of a team credited with turning it into a major American magazine.^1,4 According to New York magazine, Glaser sometimes drew magazine covers himself when none was ready 24 hours before press time.¹

His design work included posters that helped define the style of the 1960s and early 1970s, as well as logos for Barron's and the Brooklyn Brewery.^1,3 After New York State's 1975 fiscal crisis, the state commissioned Glaser to propose a tourism logo, leading to his I ❤ NY design.^1,3,4 TED's biography says the I ❤ NY logo alone would make Glaser a legend and describes his other works as similarly iconic.³ In 2009, Glaser received the National Medal of Arts, the first graphic designer to do so.²

Glaser witnessed the September 11 attacks from his Manhattan studio and afterward created an “I Love New York More Than Ever” poster, which School of Visual Arts students distributed across New York's five boroughs during the week of September 11, 2001.⁶ Glaser said New Yorkers were in shock after the attacks and that people did not understand what they had experienced.⁶ According to Hadassah Magazine, Glaser collaborated with his wife Shirley on children's books including The Alphazeds.⁴

Critic Steven Heller said Glaser spoke the universal visual language well.⁴ After Glaser's death, his nephew Steven Brower wrote that social-media tributes indicated his influence on thousands of designers and illustrators.² Glaser published Graphic Design in 1973, according to his nephew Steven Brower.² The New Jewish Home described Glaser as a spokesman for ethical practice in design.⁵