130 —— 131

Milton Glaser, Inc.

Founded: 1974
Personnel: 6
Location: New York, US
www.miltonglaser.com

In 1954, Milton Glaser co-founded Push Pin

Studio in New York. It was to become one of
the most influential and era-defining studios
in graphic design history. In 1974 Glaser
founded Milton Glaser, Inc., from where he
continues to pursue his singular vision of life
as a designer, public intellectual and artist.

For many, Glaser represents the epitome

of the cultured designer – how many graphic
designers quote Horace? Best known for co-
founding New York Magazine and designing
the timeless I Love New York logo, his oeuvre
encompasses newspapers and magazine
design, interior spaces, logos, typeface
creation and brand identities, as well as
prints, drawings, posters and paintings
that reveal an artist and draughtsman
of consummate skill and vision.

Glaser is the author of numerous books,

including Milton Glaser: Graphic Design. His
most recent book, Drawing is Thinking, is a
collection of his drawings and art. He is also
the subject of a recent documentary film
Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight.

The interview was conducted by phone.

–

It’s rare to hear designers talk publicly about

their studios. Can you describe your studio
and your studio philosophy?

Milton Glaser: My office, which has

always been more or less the same, is a big
undifferentiated room. I sit in one place in
the room, in the same relationship to the
rest of the room as everybody else. There is
no visual hierarchy. I think it may have to do
with the fact that when I was a kid my family
lived in a three-roomed apartment. The family
would spend its evenings in the living room. My
mother would knit at one end, my father would
read the paper and listen to the radio, my
sister was at her desk, and I was at the other
end doing my homework. I became accustomed
to the lack of privacy and got used to working
in a place where a lot of things were going on.

For me, the idea of a room with people

doing their work without separation, without
privacy, was quite natural. If your own history
was different, it may be difficult for you
to enter into an open studio situation and
work effectively. It’s hard to talk about a
singular ideal studio, perhaps, because when
personalities are arbitrarily thrust together,
a solution that is uniform doesn’t apply.
132 —— 133

When you started Push Pin in 1954 did you 01 | written a memo in my life, because everybody Elsewhere in this book, Erik Spiekermann
have a studio model in mind? 02 | knows exactly who I’m talking to and what I‘m points out that in the big studios with 125
doing. Everybody here knows everybody’s people and upwards, the work is only ever
I had an ideal in mind that came out of a visit business. If you have a deep sense of privacy done by teams of four or five people.
I made to Donald Brun’s1 studio in Switzerland, I don’t think that you could work for me.
when I first went to Europe. I was in my early That’s probably true, and in an office like
20s and very impressionable. I called Brun Do your clients come to the studio? ours, you collectively sit down and talk
on the telephone and asked if I could visit about how to approach the problem.
him, and he graciously said yes. I went to his Yes. We have a separate room, a little so-
house, and at the top was a skylight studio called conference room with table and chairs. I guide the direction, but I like everyone
where he worked with two assistants. They So it’s possible to leave the studio and go to to participate. It’s very much a studio, and
each had a desk with a single piece of paper this adjoining room and have a conversation. depends on having a kind of idiosyncratic
on it, a T-square and a triangle, and that was But it’s looked upon as something that is not view of what design is. The only reason
all. They were wearing lab coats and it was all part of the culture. If somebody is talking to clients come to us is because they want some
very Swiss and orderly. I said to myself, ‘One somebody else in another room, everybody is difference from what a commercial design
day, I’m going to have a place just like this.’ alerted to the fact that something is going studio would do.
on that is aberrant.
Have you ever managed to get your designers Do you see it as part of your job to nurture
into lab coats? When you set up Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974 you and develop talent?
were working on big projects – supermarkets,
I’ve tried on more then one occasion, but of that sort of thing. Was there a moment when I think the job of a successful studio director
course it never happened [laughs]. At Push you thought you might become Landor2 or is indeed to pass on their knowledge. I’ve been
Pin we were in a loft in a disreputable building, Interbrand3? Or was it never really part teaching for half a century and in many cases
with stuff all over the place. On our desks, of the plan? my students have gone on to work for me.
instead of a single piece of paper, I try to ensure that people who are working
a T-square and a triangle, there were a No, it was never part of my plan. I’ve never for me are also learning something that is
hundred pieces of paper and every kind of felt comfortable in that world. It involves useful to them.
pencil, ruler, pen, worn-out brushes, dried- too much time spent with clients rationalizing
out paint, and dozens of jars of thinners and your decisions and not enough time spent What are you looking for in the designers
paints. My ideal model was compromised by doing the work. For me, the only purpose you hire?
life itself. It didn’t quite work out. of being in this field is to do the work, not
to give it to others and then work as the More than anything else, an attitude.
You didn’t have any American models? salesperson. That fills me with horror. I want people to know that they can learn
I did the supermarket – Grand Union – here and that it is an opportunity for growth
The truth is we didn’t, and also we didn’t even with James Goldsmith4. Funny man. Mad and understanding. And my principle is
have a model for what a studio did, or how a right-winger, but I liked him very much. always that the way you learn is by observing
business ran, or most anything else. We just someone who knows how to do what you aspire
plunged into this idea that we could continue What was he like as a client? to. The old apprenticeship system appears to
doing what we were doing at school – play be from a different time, but it is still the best
and have fun and talk and listen to music and He was the perfect client for me. way. More then anything, what you learn is
basically enjoy the day. Over time, we had to Fundamentally he agreed with almost the devotion that people have to the pursuit
modify that a little bit. everything I wanted to do. The scope of of their work. I always say that what I learnt
the job was really enormous. We did 2500 from [Giorgio] Morandi5 when I was living in
That sounds like a pretty good vision, to me. packages, and it was stimulating knowing Bologna 6 was how totally committed he was to
How important is your physical environment? that you were doing work that would be the idea of being a painter and an etcher and
seen by ordinary people, and not the kind of discovering what the possibilities were. And I
Actually I have to say that I do like order, specialized audience that most of our stuff think that’s what happens when you work with
but my inclination is to move towards chaos, involves. So I geared up, and ran the studio somebody good – your experience is not what
so it’s a case of constantly fixing what exists with 45 people and made a lot of money during they tell you, but what they are.
and every once in a while it stays sort of that period. I also learnt that I didn’t want
orderly and understandable for a couple of to run that kind of studio. We did the job Here you are, one of the most celebrated and
hours, and then the flow of events catches and then Grand Union was sold (I was on the famous graphic designers in the world; can
up. I have finally understood I will never really board of directors, which is an odd place for you tell me how work comes to you?
have the place I dreamed of. a designer to be, but it meant that I got a
terrific payoff when the company was sold). Well, I don’t really know. I’ve never done
Your earlier description of the studio as a But I also realized that it had in part taken very much solicitation. We’re at a point in
living room where everybody sits together me away from the work I really enjoyed doing. professional life where design activities have
and gets on with their work seems like a very slowed to a walk and I have to recognize that
resilient and workable model for a studio. So you rejected the move towards becoming a at this point my reputation is not entirely
big powerhouse studio. How many people are beneficial. People assume I have plenty of
The only job I ever had, which only lasted at Milton Glaser, Inc. today? work, that I’m very expensive and difficult
about eight months, was for Vogue, in their to deal with. Which may or may not be true.
promotion department. Magazines derive 01/ Project: Poster, Camus: Rebellion, We have a very small office. I have a personal I have no idea.
their ethos from the world of newspapers Resistance and Death. Date: 2007. assistant, a bookkeeper, three designers and
and journalism, and this world has always Client: School of Visual Arts. usually an intern, and that’s it. And we do I get a lot of editorial coverage that serves
Designer: Milton Glaser. 02/ Project: Book
been conducted in big ‘sitting rooms’ where a lot of work with that many people. to alert people to the fact that I’m still
cover, Plot Against America by Philip Roth.
everybody is thrust together without any Date: 2004. Client: Houghton Mifflin
around and still working. But I’ve never known
privacy. The great benefit of this is that you Harcourt Publishing Company. how to solicit work. I’ve never known how to
can hear what everybody’s saying. I’ve never Designer: Milton Glaser. send out promotional brochures… and anyway,
134 —— 135

03 | 04 | 03/ Project: Limited-edition silkscreen, appliqué. Date: 2004. Client: Rubin Museum of
Art. Designer: Milton Glaser 04/ Project: Limited-edition silkscreen, The Dance.
05 | 06 | Date: 2004. Client: Rubin Museum of Art. Designer: Milton Glaser. 05/ Project: Poster,
07 | 08 | The Secret of Art. Date: 2007. Client: School of Visual Arts. Designer: Milton Glaser.
06/ Project: Poster, Tomato: Something Unusual Is Going On Here. Date: 1978.
Client: Tomato Records. Designer: Milton Glaser. 07/ Project: Poster, We Are All African.
Date: 2006. Client: School of Visual Arts/International Rescue Committee.
Designer: Milton Glaser. 08/ Project: Poster, Darfur. Date: 2006. Client: School of Visual
Arts/International Rescue Committee. Designer: Milton Glaser.
136 —— 137

I don’t have the appetite for it. I also don’t 09 | the great artists – Picasso, Matisse and by encouraging people to buy things and to
like the idea of looking for work. Existentially, 10 | others – into the graphic design discourse. do things. That’s our job. I don’t know if that
it puts me in a position I don’t like to be in – Was that deliberate? would be understandable to a Martian.
looking for people to support your efforts
and keep you in business, as opposed to It was deliberate in the sense that if 1 Donald Brun (1909–1999), Swiss graphic designer,
people coming to you because you have you were developing a vocabulary of form exhibition designer and poster artist. Taught at the Basel
School of Design (1947–1974). Founder member of AGI.
the answer to their problems. you have to look at everything from the
Renaissance, to Picasso, to cave paintings. 2 Landor, founded by Walter Landor, a pioneer of
Most designers imagine that if they become They are all explorations of form and meaning, branding, consumer research and modern logo design.
famous, work will flood in. But can fame be so why would you as a designer feel that the Today Landor is a global branding consultancy employing
a discourager as well as an attractor? only reference that was appropriate was to hundreds of people.
what was happening in your own time.
3 Interbrand, founded in 1974. Claim to be ‘the world’s
One assumption is that if clients go to largest brand consultancy’.
someone famous, they wont be able to control I see from pictures of your studio that you
the job as well as they would like to. They also have the words ‘art is work’ written over your 4 Sir James Goldsmith (1933–1997), Anglo-French financier
think they will pay more. And they’re not sure doorway. What do you want visitors from your who maintained three families and homes in four countries.
Spent billions fighting the European Union.
that it’s going to be any better. Somebody studio to take away from that?
said that being famous was like being the 5 Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964), Italian painter who
beautiful girl who never has a date Visitors can take away whatever they like concentrated almost exclusively on still lifes and
on Saturday night. from this, but it’s intended to say, let’s not be landscapes, except for a few self-portraits. One of the
so parochial about distinctions between high few Italian artists of his generation to have escaped the
taint of Fascism. His work was featured in the film La Dolce
Are there any studios from the modern era and low forms. What we discover late in life is
Vita by Frederico Fellini.
that you admire? that things that are called art are sometimes
arbitrarily defined, and things that are called 6 Glaser won a Fulbright scholarship and spent a year
There are many good people, but I’ve never work sometimes become art. The distinction (1952–1953) in Bologna, Italy, studying with
really paid much attention to what’s going between art and non-art is a complex and Giorgio Morandi.
on in the field because it never interested me fascinating subject, often reduced to style,
7 Massimo Vignelli, Italian-born designer, founded
that way. I have people I admire like Massimo opportunity and money. Fundamentally my idea Vignelli Associates, working for clients such as IBM and
Vignelli7, and many people who are of my is that you need to pay attention to what’s in American Airlines.
generation. I like Stephen Doyle’s8 work very front of you without too many preconceptions.
much. I like Stefan Sagmeister’s9 work. But I 8 Stephen Doyle, New York designer. See page 68.
have to say that other designers have not OK, last question. Somebody has just arrived
9 Stefan Sagmeister, Austrian-born graphic designer and
been the major source of my inspiration. I’ve in your studio from Mars and you have to typographer. Runs design company Sagmeister Inc., based
always looked towards history more than what describe Milton Glaser, Inc. to them; what in New York. Designed album covers for the Rolling Stones,
is current. There have been so many great are you going to say? Lou Reed and David Byrne.
masters and so many extraordinary people.
10 Horace, (65BCE–8BCE), leading Roman lyric poet during
Although at this particular moment, I’m not Well, first they’d have to understand the
the time of Augustus. Best known for his Odes.
sure we are at a particularly elevated level. nature of capitalist enterprise, and they’d
have to understand what a business is, and 11 Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight, a film about Glaser
Among young designers there is a lot of they’d have to understand what you are directed by Wendy Keys.
interest in the past. A real reverence for the communicating, and to whom and for what
Swiss guys, for example. I’ve noticed it more purpose. The thing about our practice is that
then I ever did before. Have you come it is bound by utility and success. You have
across this? to produce ways of communicating to others
that move them to action and understanding.
From time to time. At Push Pin, and through That’s what we do. Primarily we do it visually,
my own efforts, I tried to make design less though we use language as well. But we
ideologically and stylistically limited. I grew basically move people to action by virtue
up as a child of modernism and for years of images and words.
that was really the centrepiece of my work,
until I realized it was just not interesting Having said that, I found a quote that
enough. You got to a certain point where you I love from Horace10: ‘the definition of art is
understood principles. In many cases they something that informs and delights’. I used
were eminently employable, but there were part of that quote for the title of a film that
so many other things one could refer was made about me11. I like that definition
to that were alternatives to that vision. as much as anything I’ve heard, particularly
It became like eating the same lettuce and because of the word ‘informs’ rather than
tomato sandwich everyday. At a certain ‘persuades.’ My great distinction when
point, you want a thick soup. The Swiss thinking about our professional life is that
school, and the idea of modernism, became so I would rather inform then persuade, and
overwhelming. And academic in the sense that the problem I always have with advertising
it was being repeated over and over again is that it basically does the opposite.
without examination. It seemed to me that the
time had come to open up the subject a little 09/ Project: Logo, Tony Kushner’s Angels So I would say to a visitor from Mars, if
more, and be a little more generous in what in America. Date: 1993. Client: Tony he spoke our language, that fundamentally
Kushner. Designer: Milton Glaser.
things could look like. we are part of the business and economic
10/ Project: Book cover, Milton Glaser
and Jerome Snyder’s The Underground
structure of the country. That capitalism is
I’ve always thought that one of the great Gourmet. Date: 1975. Client: Simon & the economic form and that we affect both
contributions you make is to constantly bring Schuster. Designer: Milton Glaser. the culture and the economics of the country