Milton Glaser

If you like US pop culture you will know graphic designer Milton Glaser’s work, even if you don’t know his name. Glaser, who created the “I (Heart) NY” logo, died last Friday aged 91.

His death in Manhattan was confirmed by his wife Shirley, who said he had suffered a stroke and renal failure, The New York Times reported. Glaser was born in the Bronx to Hungarian immigrant parents. He was celebrated for his joyous and retro style that helped him to shape the visual identity of US popular culture, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. He was also co-founder, with Clay Felker, of New York magazine, where he served as president and design director until 1977.

Glaser designed the “I

(Heart) NY” logo, with its red heart on a white background, for a 1977 campaign promoting the state as a tourism destination. It remains a staple in tourist gift shops.

He also captured the spirit of the time with a promotional poster for a 1967 album of Bob Dylan’s greatest hits that depicted the singer in profile, his face in dark shadows but with a vivid mane of hair.

Glaser, long-considered the dean of US graphic designers, also reimagined the logo for DC Comics and the logo for Brooklyn Brewery.

He also designed the poster for the final season of the hit TV series “Mad Men.”

“What Milton Glaser gave to New York will long survive him,” the state’s governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted. “I (Heart) New York was the perfect logo at the time he created it and remains so today. We lost a brilliant designer and a great New

Yorker.”