architecture, design & graphics

Dylan, Milton Glaser

By the end of the 1960s a major stylistic trend had emerged in American graphic design, which coincided with a widespread reaction against modernism or the international style among architects. A group of graphic designers, including Glaser, Seymour Chwast, and Herb Lubalin, rejected such ideals as functionalism and neutrality in favor of a witty, eclectic style having immediate consumer appeal.

Glaser’s iconic poster of the young Bob Dylan captured the essence of how people felt about the singer-songwriter and his music at that time. Inspired by a self-portrait of Marcel Duchamp and Islamic painting, Glaser portrayed Dylan as a black silhouette with a shock of kaleidoscope hair that perfectly captured the times and the singer’s counterculture message. Although relatively rare today, nearly six million copies of the poster were produced as an insert for Dylan's Greatest Hits album of 1966.

Architecture, Design & Graphics