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Legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser (b. June 26, 1929), who created the iconic I♥NY logo, on art, education, and the kindness of the universe.

Debbie Millman Milton Glaser art and design interviews art thought and opinion culture and society

Art has no purpose, except the transformation of human experience.

Debbie Millman’s wonderful interview with legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser.

Also see Glaser on art, technology, and the secret of life, then revisit William Faulkner on the purpose of art.

Milton Glaser art and design thought and opinion culture and society design

You learn more and more that everything exists at once with its opposite, so the contradictions of life are never-ending and somehow the mediation between these opposites is the game of life.

The great Milton Glaser, who is 86 today, on art and the secret of life.

Milton Glaser thought and opinion art and design design interviews Debbie Millman

Happy birthday, Milton Glaser, creator of I♥NY! Celebrate with his warm wisdom on art and life, in conversation with Debbie Millman.

Milton Glaser Design Matters Debbie Millman art and design design thought and opinion culture and society

A decade of intelligent and inspiring conversations on the creative life from Debbie Millman's Design Matters, which celebrates its 10th birthday this month.

See some favorite highlights here.

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The magnificent Milton Glaser, who is 85 today, on art, technology, and the secret of life in a wonderful Good Life Project interview.

Milton Glaser thought and opinion graphic design culture and society art and design philosophy

Legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser, who is 85 today, on art, money, education, and the kindness of the universe.

Milton Glaser art and design design posters Mad Men media and communication culture and society

As if we needed another reason to love Milton Glaser: His gorgeous posters for the final season of Mad Men.

Milton Glaser art and design culture and society thought and opinion design

Professional life is very often antithetical to artistic life, because in professional life you basically repeat what you already know — your previous successes. It’s like marketing — marketing is the enemy of art, because it is always based on the past — not that art is always based on the future, but it’s very often based on transgression. So when you do something that basically is guaranteed to succeed, you’re closing the possibility for discovery.

Legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser on art and the meaning of life.

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MILTON GLASER ON ART, EDUCATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE MEANING OF LIFE »

This is the power of a great educator or mentor: The legendary Milton Glaser – creator of the iconic I♥NY logo, co-founder of New York Magazine, considered by many the greatest graphic designer alive – tells this stirring story of “how twenty seconds can change your life”:

When I was in junior high school, I had the opportunity to take the entrance examination to either Bronx Science, which is a great New York school, or the High School of Music and Art, another great school. … And I had a science teacher who was very encouraging for me to enter into science — I was very good at science — and he wanted me to go to Bronx Science. And I was evasive about that, because I didn’t want to tell him that it ain’t gonna happen.
But the day of the entrance exam — they occurred on the same day — I took the entrance examination to the High School of Music and Art. And the next day I came into school, he was in the hallway as I was walking down, and he said, “I want to talk to you.” I said, “Uh-oh — the jig is up, he’s going to find out I took the ‘wrong’ exam.” He said, “Come to my office… Sit down.” And, as I was sitting there, he said, “I hear you took the exam for Music and Art.” And I said, “Um, yes.” And then he reached over, and he reached into his desk, and he pulled out a box of French Conté crayons — a fancy, expensive box — and he gave it to me, and he said, “Do good work.”
I can’t tell that story without crying, because it was such a profound example of somebody — an adult, authority figure, sophisticated man — who was willing to put aside his own desire for something, his own direction for my life, and recognize me as a person who had made a decision. And he was, instead of simply acknowledging it, encouraging it with this incredibly gracious and generous gift. … The thing about it that always astonishes you is that moment — it couldn’t have taken more than two minutes — was totally transformative about my view of life, my view of others, my view of education, my view of acknowledging the other.

Send this to every educator or mentor you know, and think of what would be possible if we were all capable of such self-transcendence for the sake of elevating another’s potential.

Watch the interview, superb in its entirety, here.

Milton Glaser thought and opinion art and design design interviews quote culture and society philosophy

The great Milton Glaser – legendary designer, creator of the iconic I♥NY logo, co-founder of New York Magazine, beloved educator of more than 50 years – on art, technology, and the meaning of life.

tech science and technology Milton Glaser interviews culture and society thought and opinion

The computer is dangerous because it shapes your capacity to understand what’s possible. The computer is like an apparently submissive servant that turns out to be a subversive that ultimately gains control of your mind. The computer is such a powerful instrument that it defines, after a while, what is possible for you. And what is possible is within the computer’s capacity. And while it seems in the beginning like this incredibly gifted and talented servant actually has a very limited intelligence — the brain is so much vaster than the computer. But, the computer is very insistent about what it’s good at, and before you know it — it’s like being with somebody who has bad habits, you sort of fall into the bad habits — and it begins to dominate the way you think about what is possible. … [Counter this] by doing things that are uncomfortable for it to do.

Read this, you’ll be glad you did.

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Milton Glaser, the greatest graphic designer alive and creator of the iconic I♥NY logo, on art, technology, and the secret of life

Milton Glaser art and design design culture and society Roman Mars 99% Invisible podcasts copyright New York

I Heart NY, TM – absolutely fantastic episode of 99% Invisible, in which Roman Mars tells the unlikely story of Milton Glaser’s iconic I♥NY logo and what it reveals about creativity and copyright.

By now, the story is well known. A man sits in the backseat of a cab, sketching on a notepad as night falls over a crumbling city. He scribbles the letter I. He draws a heart. And then an N, and then a Y. Right away he knows he’s got something. This is it, he thinks. This is the campaign.
The man was a designer named Milton Glaser. The city was New York. The year was 1977. A time and place commemorated by an entire genre of movies dedicated to making it look like a horrifying place to live.
The city needed a miracle. And it kind of got one in three letters and a symbol:

Pair with this remarkable glimpse inside Glaser’s mind and Debbie Millman’s indispensable interview with the creative icon, in which he discusses art, money, education, and the kindness of the universe.

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July 11, 1969: Milton Glaser’s iconic Dusty and the Duke cover for a LIFE magazine feature on Dustin Hoffman and John Wayne. Glaser, who is perhaps best-known as the creator of the I ♥ NY logo and is regarded by many as the greatest living graphic designer, is a treasure trove of wisdom on creativity and life.