Glaser spent about a week working on an initial design. He had recently left Push Pin and set up his own studio in New York when he was approached by Doyle to design the logo for the campaign (there are differing dates for when exactly the logo was commissioned, with Glaser stating 1975, while other sources say it was designed in 1977 after the looting that occurred during a blackout in the city, which was seen as the decade’s lowest moment). Glaser had already found fame for work he’d been producing with Push Pin Studios, which he co-founded in New York in 1954, including his psychedelic poster for Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits album from 1966, and the masthead for New York magazine from 1968.

The campaign needed a logo, so William S Doyle, then deputy commissioner of commerce for New York State, approached renowned designer Milton Glaser. To help counteract this dire image, an advertising agency, Wells Rich Greene, came up with a marketing campaign that was centred on the slogan I Love New York. In fact, the symbol was born in the mid-70s as part of an advertising campaign commissioned by New York State to increase tourism and also raise the spirits of the residents of New York during a particularly difficult period in the state’s history, when crime rates in New York City were at an all time high and the state was close to bankruptcy.

Surely it has always been there, offering New Yorkers and tourists the chance to proclaim their love for the city? The I love NY logo is so ubiquitous in New York today that it feels hard to imagine it actually being designed.

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