MiHyun Kim (MK): When you designed I heart NY, did you think that it would become such a cultural icon?

Milton Glaser (MG): No, of course not.  You never know in your work what is going to endure and what is going to disappear. it is as much miracle to me as it was.

(MK): When I saw I love NY more than ever after nine eleven, I was somewhat sad and assuring and comforting at the same time. I remember thinking wow, one piece of artwork can be really touching.

(MG): The original I love NY symbol was designed in 1977. I did I love NY more than ever right after the bombing, nine eleven. That was done after people in the city was so shocked and realized how much we love the city and the way we realized, when somebody get sick, how much we will miss them when they die. That was an attempt to basically express what people in the city was feeling after nine eleven. The vulnerability and shock, that is why I put little a black mark which is a sort of lower Manhattan where the bombing occurred. What is comforting is the feeling that we share by millions of people. I mean what it articulated was what millions of people were feeling at that time but didn’t know how to express it. It struck that feeling to express the sadness of the city; that is why people respond to it.

(MK): Was ‘I heart NY’ a client work. How were you approached for that work?

(MG): The NY state department of commerce. The city was loosing tourism, there was a high crime rate, the economic conditions of the city had deteriorated. The state felt it needed a campaign to have people come back to New York. They had the phrase, “I Love New York” that come from a song or from somebody else’s work and they came to me asking how do we visualize this statement – so I designed the identity for it.

(MK): Everyone is familiar with you designs. Did you have a desire to become famous or was it simply a byproduct of your hard work?

(MG): Well. I’m not sure exactly what you mean. As a child i love to make things. And i discovered my greatest sense of happiness came when I was drawing and making little solders and I knew I would someone spend my life making things one way or another – painting or sculpting or building. I knew that from a very early age I was just unaware of the way it would manifest through design and typography and architecture.

(MK): When you get a new project, what is your design process like? Do you know what you want to do almost right away, or do you also need time to explore several ideas for a while?

(MG): The work itself creates the process. I will certainly try incorporate the intent of the client after all design is purposeful and what must establish what one wants to accomplish. In the case of I heart NY for instance you want people to feel welcome in the city, so I ask ‘OK – how do I make them feel welcome’, etc. Process is not very complicate. Most of what I do is intuitive. I rely on my objectability to clarify. I resolve most questions artistically, aesthetically, and intuitively.

(MK): You have 6 posters in underground images school of visual art poster exhibition. It looks like you have quite close relationship with SVA. How did it start?

(MG): I’ve been teaching there for about 55 years. I was hired by the founder of the school, a man named Silas Rhodes. He hired me to do any course I want in continuing education, which I did and I continued to teach there and then about 10 or 12 years ago I shifted into the masters program.

(MK): Do you still teach?

(MG): I do. I’m trying a new experiment where i teach collectively. I get the problem and I get everyone in the class to work simultaneously in groups of 2 or 3 or 5 so the intelligence spreads throughout the process together and to stop the idea of the genius designer into the idea of a practitioner within the community. That is what I’ve been doing for the past three years and it is a shift from the way I use to teach. It may have some benefits and some limitations. I am still learning how to do it.

(MK): What is your current project?

(MG): I’m actually designing some socks for children. And some work for a theatre in Brooklyn mailing pieces and promotions. I’m doing some prints which I always try to continue while I do other things. That’s it.

(MK): With all new technologies, what do you think how all the new technologies affect graphic design?

(MG): No one understands the relationship between technology and design. Obviously it has made some things easier and some things worse. It changes your use of time which is the essential. If I was doing a lithograph and it was a five color lithograph it would take me a week just to pull the proofs to understand what the color was doing. I can now do that same amount of investigation of color in ten minutes on the computer. That leaves me with other options how to spend my time. How I choose to do that is another story. But to answer your question – we won’t know. We’ll understand that in 20 to 30 years. We’ll understand the effect of technology on culture in 20 years. A fish in water doesn’t know it is in water.

(MK): There are 6 posters you designed in the show. Would you like to leave a comment to the viewers who are coming to see your works in the exhibition?

(MG): I think it’s an interesting show because you have so many practitioners. There is such a breadth of talent in the community of New York. There are so many different personalities and there is such a high level of performance you realize there is such an abundance of practitioners. The school also devoted itself to producing these high level posters in a way that has seldom been done by any other institution. The school has really committed itself to producing very high level stuff.

(MK): I’ve read lot’s of interviews with you. It is very difficult to come up with questions you haven’t already answered.

(MG): Well. The only answer to any of these questions is do good work. Commit yourself to the work. If you want to succeed and you want to do what you think you are capable of, the only way to accomplish that is consistent work. I think I’ve worked every day of my life in someway related to design or art. And I think that is the only way to accomplish anything. There are no tricks. There is no methodology. Just consistent work developed the quality of what you do.

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MiHyun Kim (MK): There is currently Underground Images School of Visual Arts Subway Posters exhibition is being held at University of Texas at Arlington. There are two posters you designed about 50 years ago. It is a great honor to have your work in the exhibition.

Ivan Chermayeff (IC): Thank you, yes, those are nice posters. I have done about 300-400 posters in my career.

(MK): What do you like to do when you are not engaged in the design process or client work?

(IC): I make collages. I have many many collages. I do them almost every day. I work on them in between my office work. I have quite a few. Several hundred.

(MK): What role does collage play in your design process or thinking?

(IC): My collages are studies of visual connections. I collect a lot of stuff and as long as it’s flat enough to put in collage I use it. Everything like gloves – men loose them like construction workers, they put them in their pocket and they fall out and loose them or throw them away. I collect them when I can find them. I collect pebbles that are interesting and scraps of paper or packages….it’s endless.

(MK): When you make the collages do you know what you want to make in them?

(IC): Do I know? No. It’s a beginning and I add color and make new connections. That’s what it is all about.

(MK): Now I have some questions about your logos and design work. Your work is everywhere. When you are asked to design a logo, what is your process?

(IC): When first we have to understand completely how the logo is used. Where it appears. Some people like Mobil Oil have 50,000 gas stations around the work and they don’t even exist anymore. They were bought by Exxon seven years ago – it’s that good a symbol. The process is one simply first understanding what the company does. It can be limited in its audience and sometimes it isn’t. We need to understand the company and where the company wants to go and to interview some of the management. Then there are different answer as to what makes a good logo. They should be very simple. Appropriate for the audience. It is usually a two month process to get to that point but it should look like it took five minutes. It has to be understandable and hold it’s own. We have to make sure there is no problem or likeness with their competitors, so we have to know what they are all about as well. Then we find out if the logo can be protected legally. That is also part of the process.

(MK): Do you just start to draw your idea once you know who they are and where they want to go?

(IC): Yeah. The clients are quite varied, some are universities. I’m going to Turkey for the 32nd time this May because we have a client there called, KOC. They are probably the largest in Turkey. My partners and I have done 18 for them. They own 110 companies. Yes, I think 18 since 1974. They have a string of hotels around Turkey and around. There are dozens of them. I did their logotype already.

(MK): Do clients find you are do you reach out?

(IC): Well, KOC, found our firm because they liked Mobil. They asked Mobil who did it and Mobil told them about Tom Geismar and me, so the head of their company came and said would you work for me. This was 1974. So I did and I’ve been working for them and the many businesses they do since 1974. Some of these are very public and visible and some are not because they supply others. They have a great many things going on. It evolves. They haven’t always been in the hotel business. Some business come about and grow and others die out. You can look up Koc holdings and find out how big and complex they are. They’re enormous. They literally are the biggest company in Turkey. The Turks are a very loyal people. I see them and when they come to New York they see me. We have a very close relationship. A lot of respect.

(MK): Do you feel it is a challenge to make a logo with today’s interactive and growing screen culture?

(IC): Some of the things we do are animated and for television. This is very important. And film. We work with them. For signage the media has changed. Television is everything so it has to work there as well as in print. Some people like KOC make all the school buses in the country so it has to work in all environments. And a company like OPET, has gas trucks and they are very visible and there is nobody in Turkey over the age of three who doesn’t know who they are.

(MK): When you see your logo in the environment. Do you feel pride in the work?

(IC): Sure. I like that a lot. When something goes by on the side of a bus or in the subway stations, wherever you encounter these things it is great pleasure to know someone else likes what happened beyond me or my associates and my partners. These things required being worked out to fit a variety of forms. The ones made in color needed to work in black and white. The big one need to work small. It requires a staff and people and a lot of hours. It has to be worked out completely and properly and we might have 8 weeks to do that. Otherwise it is irresponsible and won’t work for flexibly enough for all situations. That’s the reason most of the things you see aren’t very good. Because they haven’t been thought about thoroughly. They may work fine for one thing but they can not move easily into mass media or anything like that. No simple answer. But there are things that look very simple. LIke the Red Cross logo. Pretty hard to beat the Red Cross.

(MK): Do you have your design heroes and how was it like seeing the evolution of graphic design over the past 60 something years?

(IC): There are great designers, many of whom are dead. Graphic Design hasn’t existed very long as a profession. Not much longer than we have. I’m 82. Most of the people who I admire like Ikko Tanaka in Japan – he’s no longer with us – but was absolutely brilliant. Pierre Mendell from Germany was a friend and absolutely never did anything I didn’t like. Paul Rand was one of my greatest heroes and I was a friend of his. He was the best designer as far as I am concerned that ever lived……the list is getting longer. But 65 – 75 years ago nobody knew what Graphic Design was. Even when I was young you couldn’t even say what you did. You would say you were a commercial artist and people would say “oh” but that was nonsense because they didn’t know what that was either. You couldn’t say you were a designer. Nobody knew what that was, now some people do.

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