Milton Glaser was born on June 26th 1929 in New
York City. He is an American graphic designer, one of the most celebrated
graphic designers in the United States.
He studied and graduated from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of
Science and Art, commonly known as just Cooper Union; a privately funded
college in Manhattan, New York. He co-founded Push Pin Studios in 1954 along
with his fellow Cooper Graduates Edward Sorel, Seymour Chwast, and Reynold
Ruffins.
Push Pin Studios is a graphic design and illustration studio
formed in New York City in 1954 by Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast, Reynold
Ruffins. and Edward Sorel. Prior to forming the studio, Sorel and Chwast both
worked for a short period of time at Esquire magazine until the two designers
were fired on the same day. Afterwards, they both joined forces to form an art
studio, named after the mailing piece “Push Pin”. During their short time
working at Esquire they self-published The Push Pin Almanack. The dynamic duo
used their unemployment checks to rent a cold-water flat on East 17th
Street in Manattan. A few months afterwards, Milton Glaser Returned from a
Fullbright Fellow year in Italy and joined the studio. The Push Pin Graphic, a
bi-monthly publication was the product of the designer’s collaboration
. A distinctive quality of Push Pin's early illustration
work was a "bulgy" three-dimensional line. Sorel left Push Pin in
1956, the same day the studio moved into a much nicer space on East 57th Street.
For twenty years Glaser and Chwast directed Push Pin, while it became a guiding
reference in the world of graphic design. Today, Chwast is principal of The
Pushpin Group Inc.
In 1968, Glaser and Clay Felker founded New York magazine,
where Glaser was president and design director until 1977. The publication
became the model for city magazines, and stimulated a host of imitations.
New York is a bi-weekly magazine concerned with life,
culture, politics and style with an emphasis on New York City itself. It
competed with another magazine, “The New Yorker”. The magazine New York was
less polite and brasher than The New Yorker. It established itself as the go-to
magazine for journalistic publications. Over time, the scope of the magazine
reached out to more than just New York. The magazine over time started to include
other publications of noteworthy articles on American culture.
Glaser’s work is displayed in the Cooper Hewitt National
Design Museum located in the Upper East Side’s Museum Mile in Manhattan, Victoria
and Albert Museum in London, the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and
design and Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
In 1983 Glaser teamed with Walter Bernard to form WBMG, a
design firm the specialized in publication in New York City. Since its
creation, they have designed over 50 magazines, periodicals and newspapers
worldwide. WBMG is responsible for the complete reimaging of three major
newspapers, those being The Washing Post in the United States, La Vangaurdia in
Barcelona and O Globo in Rio de Janerio. The WBMG has consulted design projects
for The Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, The Dallas Times Herald, The East
Hampton Star, the New York Daily News and the National Post in Canada.
