Legendary Designer Milton Glaser Critiques Modern Beer Art

Iconic designer and graphic artist Milton Glaser – the mind behind the I ♥ NY logo, that Bob Dylan poster with the colorful hair, and the co-founder of New York Magazine – takes a look at the bottle and can labels of contemporary beer art. 

Spolier alert: he has good and bad things to say about most of them, though he’s kindest to the Left Hand Milk Stout, the Flying Dog Gonzo Porter, and the Ommegang Witte. 

The New York Times piece begins, “When it comes to craft beer, Glaser, who also designed the Brooklyn Brewery identity, believes that it comes down to creating a label that looks quirkily amateurish — if not downright unprofessional. ‘The one thing you don’t want to look like is Budweiser,’ Glaser says. ‘This creates a paradox: How do you deliberately create the illusion of not knowing what you’re doing when you actually do?’ As he notes…some companies do it better than others.’ “

Check out his thoughts in full: Milton Glaser Critiques Modern Beer Art 

[Photographs by Gabrielle Plucknette/The New York Times]