Artist arrives at 'just enough'

PROVO — Is less really more? Graphic artist/illustrator Milton Glaser doesn't think so.

"Being a child of modernism, I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realized that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless," he said at a 2002 American Institute of Graphic Arts National Design Conference. "If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realize that every part of that rug, every change of color, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. However, I have an alternative proposition that I believe is more appropriate: Just enough is more."

Glaser's approach has put him at the forefront of graphic design and illustration fields. The co-founder of New Yorker Magazine, he has been called the "Picasso of Pop" and a "modern Renaissance man" for his ability to constantly reinvent himself. Over the past 50 years, the 77-year-old graphic designer and illustrator has created everything from record album covers to packaging, posters to newspaper designs, toys to textiles, books to logos, Web sites to restaurant interiors, theme parks to calendars.

An exhibition at the BYU Museum of Art explores the development of Glaser's work from preliminary drawings to finished designs and reveals how he arrives at successful designs by including "just enough," said museum spokesman Chris Wilson.

The exhibition of 100 works includes original drawings, sketchbooks, paintings, lithographs, silk screens and mass-produced posters. The works give patrons a look into Glaser's design process by exploring the evolution of his designs and the ways he uses conceptual elements.

Glaser co-founded Pushpin Studios in 1954 and incorporated narrative, humor and historical references in his quest for groundbreaking ground-breaking design. In 1968, he co-founded New Yorker Magazine, touted as the model for city magazines. Six years later, he established Milton Glaser, Inc., where he creates corporate and institutional identities for civic and commercial ventures. He has designed more than 300 posters for clients and has conceptualized the environmental and interior design of restaurants, shopping malls, amusement parks, grocery stores and other retail entities.

In 1983 Glaser partnered with Walter Bernard to establish WBMG, a publication design firm located in New York City. Since its beginning, they have designed more than 50 magazines, newspapers and periodicals worldwide.

Glaser has put on one-man shows at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris. In 2004 he wasawarded was awarded the lifetime achievement award of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.

---

If you go

What: "Just Enough is More: The Graphic Design of Milton Glaser"

Where: BYU Museum of Art Marian Adelaide Morris Cannon Gallery

When: June 30-Oct. 7 (opening reception: 7-9 p.m., June 29)

Cost: Free