An iconic logo by an iconic designer
The ‘I love New York’ logo was designed by prolific designer Milton Glaser (who also co-founded New York magazine) in 1976. Glaser was asked to design a logo to accompany a campaign by ad agency, Wells Rich Greene. The objective of the campaign was to promote tourism in a city that was faced with high crime rates and on the verge of bankruptcy.
It was supposed to last a few months.
The iconic design you see more than 40 years later was not the one originally approved. A week after Glaser’s original submission, he was doodling in the back of a cab and scrawled ‘I heart NY’ in red crayon on the back of an envelope.
Image: MoMA
This original sketch is in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
In his book Art Is Work (2000), Glaser explained:
“I produced a typographic solution, submitted it, and it was approved. A week later, I was doodling in a cab and another idea suggested itself. I called Doyle and said, ‘I have a better idea’. ‘Forget it,’ he said, ‘do you know how complicated it would be to get everyone together to approve it again?’ ‘Let me show it to you,’ I implored. He came down to the office, nodded, took away the new sketch, called a meeting and had it approved.”
The logo has made millions of dollars for the state of New York but Glaser never made a dime from it. He designed the logo pro bono for the good of the city.
The logo has been described as ‘the most frequently imitated logo design in human history’. The New York State Department of Economic Development, who owns the trademark, has filed thousands of cease and desist letters for unauthorised use.
They even tried to sue Milton Glaser himself.
After the September 11 attacks, Glaser reinterpreted his original design with a black smudge, and the addition of the words ‘more than ever’. It was distributed freely as posters throughout the city, and printed on the front and back pages of the New York Daily News 8 days after the attacks.
Image: LA Times
Can you imagine getting one of the best designers that has ever lived to design you a logo for free, making hundreds of millions of dollars from licensing of said logo for decades, and then having the nerve to go after the designer in the wake of such tragedy?
When explaining the endurance of the logo to Gothamist in 2017, Glaser said:
“It was an expression of how people felt about New York during a very, very tough time in the late ’70s. We wanted to let the world know that we still loved this city. It was emotional, and it was real.”
In 2011, Glaser told The Village Voice:
“I’m flabbergasted by what happened to this little, simple nothing of an idea.”
Image: The New Yorker