Milton Glaser Dylan Poster Original

Milton Glaser may be best known for a 1977 doodle that became his hometown’s unofficial slogan: I ♥️ NY. But the Bronx-born graphic designer had many other successes during his nearly 70-year career, including iconic posters and prints and cofounding the groundbreaking design firm Push Pin Studios.

In the 1950s, American graphics tended toward a Swiss-influenced precision. Glaser, however, pulled from the whole of art history for his designs, inspired by his studies with the painter Giorgio Morandi while on a Fulbright scholarship in 1952. His famous Bob Dylan poster, a landmark of the psychedelic age, was inspired by a Marcel Duchamp self-portrait and the jewel-like colors of Islamic art.

A cofounder of New York magazine, Glaser went on to design for scores of other publications, and in 2009 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

In an instance of life imitating art, Glaser was asked to create the promotional posters for the final season of Mad Men, which aired in 2014 and 2015. “I could have walked in the door of that firm,” the designer told the New York Times of the fictional Sterling Cooper & Partners. “I knew those people.”

“There are three responses to a piece of design — yes, no and wow!” he said. “Wow is the one to aim for.” Glaser rarely, if ever, missed the mark. He died of a stroke in 2020.

Find a collection of authentic Milton Glaser art on 1stDibs.

Add a welcome personal touch to your space and tie your distinctive interior scheme together by introducing antique and vintage posters to any and every room of your home.

In the late 19th century, following the advent of text-heavy posters printed from woodblocks for use in taverns and shop windows, hand-drawn poster art had become commonplace in regions such as France, England and the United States. Well-known illustrators were commissioned to produce decorative posters to advertise political campaigns, theatrical events, books, household goods and other items. Early poster artists used a printmaking technique called lithography, which sees drawings or paintings created on a stone (or metal) surface with an oil-based substance, such as a greasy crayon or tusche (an oily wash). The image is eventually affixed to the surface by means of a chemical reaction, and ink adheres to certain sections of the surface while non–image areas are made to repel the ink.

If you wanted a color lithograph in the early days, the number of stones prepared had to match the number of colors you commissioned for the poster. French painter Jules Chéret, widely known as the father of the modern poster, designed some of history's most popular lithographic posters that featured color. Today, Chéret’s art is highly collectible, along with original works by Czech painter and decorative artist Alphonse Mucha, whose posters advertising theatrical productions helped define Art Nouveau.

Over time, poster artists transitioned to more advanced techniques. Using silkscreens, woodblocks and photolithography, painters and illustrators printed larger quantities at a faster rate.

If you’ve finally tracked down that vintage movie poster, mid-century modern promotional travel poster or other work and you’re looking to find out if it is valuable, distinguishing between an original poster and a reproduction can be complicated. A professional appraiser can work with you on factors such as rarity, assessing the physical condition of your poster and authenticating your piece. For now, take care of your new acquisition because conserving posters is essential in helping them retain their value. A practical conservation method is to have the work mounted on archival, acid-free paper and thin artist’s canvas, then enclosing it in a sturdy frame. (And here is a primer on how to hang wall art, be it arranged gallery-style or otherwise.)

On 1stDibs, find all kinds of posters for your home today.