SVA is pleased to announce the opening of the Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives. The mission of the Archives is to collect, preserve and make accessible materials in the areas of art and design, with a special emphasis on graphic design. It currently holds work by world-class designers Milton Glaser, Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar, and Henry Wolf, and will be housed in a specially-designed space within SVA's newly renovated library on the east side of Manhattan. These vast holdings will provide an invaluable resource to the design community and will allow visitors to see an evolution of a given project, documenting the design process from conception to completion.
The founding gift is from designer and illustrator Milton Glaser, an instructor and board member at SVA since 1961. The Milton Glaser Collection provides a complete overview of Glaser's incredible and vast body of work: approximately 700 pieces of original art, 1,700 sketches, 380 posters, 150 prints, as well as newspapers and magazines, album covers, menus, letterhead, annual reports, brochures and books designed and/or illustrated by Mr. Glaser.
Glaser began thinking about a permanent home for his body of work about five years ago. "The most natural and obvious place for it to go was SVA, since I have been associated with the College for almost 50 years and it's been a fundamental part of my life. It was also in honor of my longtime friendship with SVA's founder and Chairman Silas H. Rhodes, who has been a great support to me over the years," said Glaser. "I'm pleased that the Archives has expanded to become a repository for the work of other significant figures in the design community as well, making it an invaluable teaching tool."
Milton Glaser is among the most celebrated graphic designers in the world. He co-founded the revolutionary Pushpin Studios in 1954, founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968, established Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974, and teamed with Walter Bernard in 1983 to form the publication design firm WBMG. Throughout his career, Glaser has been a prolific creator of posters and prints and produced iconic designs, such as the ubiquitous "I Love NY" campaign. His artwork has been featured in exhibits worldwide, including one-man shows at both the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Among numerous professional awards, he is the recipient of The Society of Illustrators' Gold Medal, the St. Gauden's Medal from The Cooper Union and he was selected for the lifetime achievement award of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in 2004. Glaser is also a member of The Art Directors' Club Hall of Fame and is the recipient of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Medal as well as 10 honorary degrees from prestigious institutions including the Royal College of Art in London and the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy. In 1998, Glaser was presented with SVA's Masters Series Award and Exhibition, an annual exhibition to honor the great visual communicators of our time.
The Chermayeff & Geismar Collection documents the printed work of the celebrated design firm of Chermayeff & Geismar. The collection includes 325 posters, 340 letterhead samples and over 1,000 printed samples, including graphics manuals, annual reports, brochures and packaging. Ivan Chermayeff and Thomas Geismar initially formed their partnership in the late 1950s and have gone on to build one of America’s most influential graphic design firms. Together they have created more than three hundred corporate identity programs for companies such as Mobil Oil, Xerox, Chase Bank, PBS, NBC, Univision and Rockefeller Center. Their works extend from logos to posters and publications to major exhibitions including the United States Pavilions at the World’s Fair in Montreal and Osaka, Japan. Chermayeff taught at SVA from the mid-70s to the mid-80s and in 1995 he was presented with SVA’s prestigious Masters Series Award and Exhibition.
The Henry Wolf Collection contains more than 900 photographs, slides of Wolf's photography, posters, correspondence, tearsheets, covers and ads designed by Wolf and magazines containing his work. Henry Wolf (1925 - 2005) was art director at Esquire, Harper's Bazaar and Show Magazine, working with photographers Richard Avedon and Melvin Sokolosky. At advertising agency McCann Erickson, he worked on projects for Alka Seltzer, Buick, Geigy, Gillette, Coca-Cola and Phillip Morris. He later joined Jane Trahey to form Trahey/Wolf Advertising, with Wolf as the vice president and creative director. In 1971 he founded Henry Wolf Productions, Inc., a studio dedicated to photography, film and design. For the next three decades, Wolf worked as both a photographer and a designer, shooting for a host of major companies and magazines and creating over 500 television commercials and nine films. Wolf taught at School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design and Cooper Union. He was a president and life member of the Art Directors Club, and was inducted into the ADC Hall of Fame in 1980.
The Archives, a project of the Visual Arts Foundation, Inc., actively seeks to acquire materials in various formats with the intent of documenting the design process from conception to completion. Among the media held by the Archives are posters, works of art on paper, printed samples and ephemera, photographs, audio and videotapes, publications, scrapbooks, slides, personal papers, institutional records and electronic records. It is particularly interested in artists and designers of special renown who have been affiliated with the School of Visual Arts--such as alumni, faculty, students, administrators, board members and associates. The Archives are operated by SVA under an agreement with the Visual Arts Foundation, Inc.
LOCATION: Visual Arts Library, 380 2nd Avenue, 2nd floor, New York City
HOURS: Monday - Friday, 9am - 2pm
ACCESS: Access is by appointment only, for members of the SVA community and for outside researchers, including designers, scholars, authors and graduate students who have specific and appropriate projects.
INFORMATION: For further information or to make an appointment to visit the Archives, call Beth Kleber at 212.592.2636 or e-mail bkleber@visualartsfoundation.org.
The Visual Arts Foundation is a not-for-profit organization sustained by charitable contributions from individuals, professional associations, corporations and private foundations. The mission of the Visual Arts Foundation is to advance the arts as both individual vocation and social force. The Foundation supports emerging artists and broadens audiences for their work, fosters a climate that values and seeks understanding of the arts and increases visual literacy and appreciation for "the artist's life." The Foundation awards scholarships and grants, presents competitions, exhibitions and sponsors community service projects.
