REVIEW: Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight (2009)

Stroll through New York City and you can’t help but stumble onto one of Milton Glaser’s iconic designs be it a Brooklyn Brewery label, New York Magazine cover, or even the big, white nose perched above Trattoria dell'Arte across from Carnegie Hall. Of course, Glaser, one of the world’s most talented, postmodern graphic designers, has also left his stamp, quite literally, with the ubiquitous I ♥ NY insignia. Wendy Keys’ new documentary Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight pays homage to this humble, erudite, and mirthful man who transcends traditional lines between high art and commercial design to make art accessible to the public. Keys incorporates anecdotes from students, clients, colleagues, and Glaser himself and highlights not only Glaser’s powerful aesthetic, but also his art’s implicit call for political and social responsibility. Whether encapsulating the psychotropic 60s in a Bob Dylan profile, rendering the plight of gay men in America in a print ad for Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, or embodying his pacifist beliefs in a poster condemning genocide in Darfur, Glaser informs and delights with his constant reinvention and incredible ability to capture the current zeitgeist. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at The Roxie Friday, June 19^th