The Big Apple's Rebrand Is an Iconic Failure
Any new New York logo was bound to ruffle feathers, but riffing on Milton Glaser's creation? Fuhgeddaboudit.
I am one of a tiny minority that recoils from the “I ♥ NY” logo, which Milton Glaser crayoned on a scrap of paper in the back of a taxi in 1975. Don’t get me wrong: I acknowledge that it’s a remarkable piece of graphic design, and respect it as the icon of an indefatigable city. After all, Glaser donated the logo to a New York in ’70s decline, and revisited it after 9/11 when he handed out bruised-heart posters declaring, “I ♥︎ NY MORE THAN EVER.”
But despite all this, and notwithstanding my genuine love of New York, I’ve never warmed to the American Typewriter slab-serif type, the center-stacked text, the N/Y kerning or the squat and (to my eye) ill-shaped heart. Even the “registered trademark” full-stop irks me. I much prefer Robert Indiana’s 1967 rendering of “Love,” which Glaser apparently cited as an inspiration: