politicalgraphics
Jul 2, 20201 min
Organize!
Milton Glaser
Bread and Roses Cultural Project of 1199 SEIU
Offset, 1999
New York, NY
10677
Milton Glaser (1929-2020), legendary graphic designer, died this week. His creativity and skill altered how we see the world. His immense body of work ranged from commercial art to protest posters. His “I ♥ NY” logo, sketched in minutes for a 1977 tourism campaign, has been endlessly copied, adopted, imitated, and meme’d. Glaser’s most iconic poster was the psychedelic portrait of Bob Dylan made for the 1967 album cover of “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits,”—more than 6 million copies of the poster circulated around the world.
His protest posters included support for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, renewable energy, voting, and civic engagement. They also opposed nuclear power, the genocide in Darfur, and Trump.
CSPG’s Poster of the Week is Glaser’s “Organize!” Twenty-one years later, the design remains powerful, and the message is always relevant. Glaser dedicated it to Moe Foner, “for fifty remarkable years bringing labor and culture together.” Foner (1916-2002) was a labor leader in Local 1199, the New York-based hospital, and healthcare workers’ union. Foner is best known for successfully promoting workers’ culture, stating: "I operated under the theory that a good union doesn’t have to be dull."
Milton Glaser
¡Presente!
Sources: Milton Glaser, Master Designer of ‘I ♥ NY’ Logo, Is Dead at 91