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Last week at SVA I spoke a little bit about copying and its many benfits and byproducts. Among my examples was Milton Glaser’s incredible I ♥ NY logo, which, as I’ve said before, is an advertisement for itself and has enjoyed widespread recognition and repetition not just for its graphic charm and brilliance but also for its open-ended sense of possibility. You can ♥ anything. Well, now you really can ♥ anything, because Dahl & Dane are making tshirts and tote bags according to Glaser’s 1977 logo specifications, complete with the authentic American Typewriter (accept no substitutes). Order one today for you or the initials you love (via Joanna’s wonderful Cup of Jo).
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“I always quote a guy called Lewis Hyde who wrote about primitive cultures where there’s an exchange of gifts that cannot be kept but have to be passed on. And the passing on of gifts is a device to prevent people from killing one another, because they all become part of a single experience. And [Hyde’s] leap of imagination occurs when he says this is what artists do. Artists provide that gift to the culture, so that people have something in common. And I think that all of us who identify with the role of artists in history want our work to serve that purpose. Certainly as much as we want to work to sell product. (Although not everybody feels the same way.)” Milton Glaser, from this wonderful short film by Hillman Curtis from a few years ago. I never knew Glaser had read Hyde when I compared his thinking on design ethics to Hyde’s book in my essay “Form-giving,” but of course now it makes perfect sense why the two are so beautifully in sync. Perhaps an even bigger coincidence is that I just happened to stop by Glaser’s office the day Hillman Curtis was shooting there, and you see me for a moment in the film as I shake Glaser’s hand just after he finishes saying this quote.
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Milton Glaser drew the poster announcing Ettore Sottsass’s new Olivetti typewriter, the Valentine. The poster uses Glaser Stencil (of course). BiblioOdyssey (a site you’ll remember from before) has a great batch of Sottsass drawings up now, and the Flickr set in particular is worth checking out. Start here.
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The resurgence of Baby Teeth, and other fonts by Milton Glaser (including one for Bruegger’s Bagels!), on Typophile. More on the use of Baby Teeth in this great 1969 article from Design magazine.
Ethics Poll
Above: Meg Dreyer’s response to the assignment, in which she compiled the data on the designers and then put the same questions to a professional attorney. His answers were often surprising. Spread from “This is Not a Manifesto.”
In 2 days, work together to compile 100 responses to Milton Glaser’s 12 steps. Ask for yes/no responses and ask respondents to provide additional comments where they’re willing. Prepare a results report using the quantitative data, an condensed set of qualitative responses, and supporting real-world examples of Glaser’s hypotheticals.
This assignment is from the class Graphic Design & Critical Thinking.
