Milton Glaser

http://www.logoworks.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-the-i-love-new-york-logo/ History of “I heart New York” Logo

Milton Glaser is an American graphic designer and illustrator who was born on June 26th, 1929, New York. Glaser went to The High School of Music and Art, and then later he progressed to Cooper Union in New York City from which he graduated in 1951. He then went to Italy “Academy of Fine Arts” by a Fulbright scholarship to study printmaking with Giorgio Morandi in the years 1952-1953. Milton Glaser is the cofounder of the Pushpin Studio who he founded with Seymour Chwast, Reynolds Ruffins and Edward Sorel in 1954. Glaser also founded the New York Time Magazine with Clay Felker; he then founded the Milton Glaser Inc in 1974. Glaser has designed many posters, publications and architectural designs throughout his career. Glaser has also received lots of awards throughout his career such as “The National Medal of Arts” from President Barack Obama in 2009 and he was the first graphic designer to receive this award. Glaser’s is widely known all around the world and has been exhibited at exhibitions around the world. His work is also shown at worldwide museums such as; Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Glaser has also done shows at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and The Museum of Modern Arts in New York City. Glaser has been the subject of a documentary film in 2009 called “To Inform and Delight: The World of Milton Glaser”.

Some examples of Milton Glaser’s work are the “I ‘Heart’ New York” logo and the “Coke side of life” poster that he illustrated for the “Coke Side of Life” campaign.

“Coke Side of Life” poster. “I heart New York” Logo.

Out of the two pieces of work that I have mentioned by Milton Glaser, I decided to look more in depth on the “I heart New York” logo. This is because of the simplicity but effective design of the logo that regenerated the fortunes of New York State. I chose this logo also because of the colour combination as it works really well and the bright red heart stands out from the black bold writing which makes it more interesting to look at and study. Also the text he uses is Serif, which I find effective because of the edges to the words that this font gives them.

This iconic Logo has a history behind its creation to promote New York City. In the 1970s New York wasn’t the best place to be in, crime rates were extremely high and the tourism that would bring income to the city was really low. In 1975 President Ford didn’t want any assistance to try and help New York City from the bankruptcy that it fell in due to lack of tourism. The year 1977 was hit with a widespread blackout which caused crime rates to rocket up witch led to things like robberies, looting and all in street crime which saw 4,500 arrests. The things that were happening in New York during these years was broadcasted and shown all over the world which made the tourists stay away from New York as they wouldn’t want to go visit a city were the crime rates were high. To try and attract tourists to come visit New York and put it in a good light, The New York State Department for Economic Development asked the Wells Rich Greene advertising company to create a tourist-friendly campaign to encourage people to come visit New York City, also known as “The Big Apple” which was a nickname for New York that was made by John J. Fitz Gerald in the 1920s.

The agency soon established some parts of the campaign, they had a slogan they wanted to use which was “I Love New York”, a jingle and a television commercial showcasing the Broadway theatre, but still lacked a logo for the campaign. The Department of Economic Development came across Glaser’s portfolio which had a portrait of Bob Dylan, the design of the New York magazine and the visual identity of the restaurant in the World Trade Centre. The Department quickly hired Glaser so that he could meet with the Wells Rich Greene Company about the different options for the logo for the campaign. Glaser, in the meeting pulled out a crumpled piece of envelope with a quick sketch he did in a taxi and showed it to the company. The company liked the idea and got Glaser to develop the idea more into the logo that we know today. He did the work fully pro bone in the name of helping the city to

rise again so it attracts tourists to come visit New York City. The profit that the ESD makes from T-shirts and mugs that have the logo on them is $30 million a year, which proves how widely, loved and accepted the logo, is for New York.

The style that I can use in my work is the simplicity of the “I Heart New York” logo as it is basic but very effective. The colour combinations work really well together as the black and the red really strike out from the white background so I could use a similar colour combination style in my work to make it stand out from other pieces of work. The use of the bright red colour for the heart makes it feel like New York City is a vibrant, full of life place to be and or visit, I could use bright colours in my work to express how I feel or to show through colour how something is e.g. that New York isn’t a bad place and the bright red heart shows that. I can also use the Serif font in my work as the boldness of it works really well and makes each of the individual letters stand out from each other. The edges and flicks that the Serif font gives to the letters in the logo is effective as it just makes the logo look more interesting, just more appealing to the eye. I could use that style of the Serif font in my work to make my piece of work a more appealing to the eye piece of work.