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I Love NY? It’s way more than that.

There’s actually so, so much to learn about Milton Glaser’s iconic logo.

Faux Icing
UX Collective
10 min readSep 6, 2022

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A zoomed-in image of the “I Love New York” logo. A little human-like figure is shown peeking out from the bottom of the heart symbol.
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My Creative Monologue this time takes us back to the 70’s, where the design of I❤️NY makes its debut. It’s for a cause, but how did that fare so far? Let’s see.

ONE OF NEW YORK’S most iconic visuals can arguably be its tourism logo “I❤️NY.” Comprising just four glyphs, it is very recognisable in one look and easily imitated by other cash-grab merchandisers.

You may have heard its origin story: a designer working on the logo got the idea while riding in a taxi. He draws out the characters on an envelope with a red crayon, and the rest is history.

That’s a nice little story to tell, but it’s a really, really brief summary of what happened. It beckons questions: Why did the designer have a crayon with him on a taxi? Why was a major advertising campaign so seemingly rushed? How did he convince government officials that his mere scribble will work? And what can we learn from this logo?

Of course, this abbreviated story has more to it than that, and I’m here to find out. And to find out all that I can know about this logo, so you can know too.

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Published in UX Collective

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Written by Faux Icing

Freelance Graphic Designer, overthinker, and desires humour. fauxicing.carrd.co

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