COLUMBIA RECORDS 1942 PENSION PLAN
Milton Glaser [Illustrator]
Milton Glaser [Illustrator], Lawrence Miller [Designer]: COLUMBIA RECORDS 1942 PENSION PLAN. [New York: Columbia Records, n. d., 1960]. Slim square quarto. Thick textured stapled wrappers printed in one color. 12 pp. Benefits brochure with 7 illustrations by Milton Glaser printed in two colors. Uncoated page edges lightly toned. A very good archive example of a scarce Pushpin piece.
5.75 x 5.75 stapled booklet featuring cover design and six custom interior illustrations by Milton Glaser. This booklet was part of the slipcased “Your Columbia Records Personnel Library” set produced in-house at Columbia Records and Designed by Lawrence Miller and Art Directed by Reid Miles in 1960. Other volumes in the set were designed by Andy Warhol, John Alcorn, Paul Davis, and Milton Glaser.
After the multi-volume set was printed, the Warhol booklet was rejected by Columbia’s Human Resources Department as “too fey.” Pushpin Studio’s Seymour Chwast was promptly hired to design a replacement edition that was then distributed to Columbia personnel. The “Personnel Library” set won an AIGA award in the 1963 Design for Printing and Commerce competition, with the submitted set subsequently placed into the AIGA archives. The archived set does not include the Warhol booklet.
Milton Glaser (born June 26, 1929) graduated from Cooper Union and co-founded Push Pin Studios, along with fellow Cooper grads Edward Sorel, Seymour Chwast, and Reynold Ruffins in 1954. Glaser and Chwast directed Push Pin for twenty years, while it became a guiding reference in the world of graphic design. His work is displayed in the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Milton Glaser, Inc. was established in 1974 in Manhattan, and is still producing work in a wide range of design disciplines, including corporate identities (logos, stationery, brochures, signage, website design, and annual reports), environmental and interior design (exhibitions, interiors and exteriors of restaurants, shopping malls, supermarkets, hotels, and other retail environments), packaging (food and beverage packaging), and product design. He’s a living legend.