Milton Glaser calls himself "a designerwhatever that means." The 85-year-old is far too modest, given that he's the progenitor of two city mainstays: the I ♥ NY logo and New York magazine. He gave T a tour of his longtime Murray Hill studio, which is cozy and cluttered, filled with myriad colored pencils, mementos, scraps of paper, and his vast archives. As the camera switches betweens shots of his inspiration-inducing environs and his past work, from Mad Men to Brooklyn Brewery iconography, Glaser describes how he got his start. Appointed the official "class artist" in kindergarten, his skill at representation later meant classmates would pay him a nickel for a picture of "girls doing unspeakable things." "There was nothing else I would prefer doing than drawing," Glaser recalls. "Actually, that has persisted to this very day." Walking out the front door of his workplace, past framed art and a colorful carpet, he also mulls his legacy. "Design is an activity has social meaning," he says. "Design has impact on society, and that impact can be beneficial is much more significant to me than design as a selling tool."
· Milton Glaser [official]
· Studio Visit: Milton Glaser [NYT via Animal]
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