Milton Glazor

Milton Glazer may be best known for the I (heart) NY logo but he is also well known for his posters that defies the style of the 60’s and 70’s

Glazer’s early influences were the prints of Felix Valloton and Art Nouveau decoration, and he particularly admired Picasso’s gift for working in both an abstract and realistic vein. In 1954 he founded, with Seymour Chwast, Edward Sorel and Reynold Ruffins, the Push Pin Studios in New York. In 1955, with Chwast and Ruffins, he became founder-editor of Push Pin Graphics magazine

Glaser introduced an eclectic, narrative style full of historical references that amalgamated illustration with vintage typography. His flattened, heavily outlined images were borrowed at random from the Italian Old Masters, 19th-century illustration, comics, advertising and all manner of visual ephemera. He designed posters, record-sleeves, book illustrations, magazine covers and small advertisements in a witty, inventive style characterized by miscellaneous juxtapositions and revivalist frivolity.

Glazer’s 1967 image of a popular folk-rock singer Bob Dylan is presented as a black silhouette with brightly coloured hair patterns inspired by Art Nouveau sources. Nearly six million copies of the poster were printed for inclusion in a best-selling record album. The image became symbolic crystallization of its time. Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc. pg 442

Glazer often assmilates spatial devices and imagery from surrealism to express complex concepts.  The poster for poppy records, the poppy blooming from the granite cube symbolizes a new, independent company breaking through the monolithic conversations of the recording industry . Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc. pg 442

The Art Is poster for 1969 has visual and verbal meanings that are explored by manifesting a hat as a photograph, a shadow, a word, a pictograph, and a written definition. Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc. pg 443

References

Milton Glaser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2014. Milton Glaser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Glaser. [Accessed 04 February 2014].

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.