News

A Life in Art and Friendship
Bridget Kinsella -- 9/25/00
Milton Glaser publishes his second book of graphic design with his old pal Peter Mayer




Publishing is a chummy business. The industry is filled with scores of tales of friendships (and feuds) between writers and their editors and publishers, which enliven many a behind-the-book story. This is a story of friendship: the extraordinary bond between graphic design icon Milton Glaser and Peter Mayer, former CEO of Penguin Worldwide and president and founder of the Overlook Press. As it happens, Glaser's second book from Overlook is just about to be released when PW catches up with the old chums.
The cover and some samples from
Art Is Work.
It seemed fitting to interview the two about their latest project over dinner, since it was a casual conversation that provided the seeds for Glaser's seminal book, Graphic Design, which first appeared in print more than 25 years ago. The two men have been accidental neighbors throughout their lives, finding themselves literally a stone's throw away on the Lower East Side, then on the Upper West Side and in Woodstock, N.Y., on the weekends. Mayer told PW that he often found himself in the home of Milton and Shirley Glaser. "She's part of the story, too," said Mayer of Glaser's wife of 43 years. "I remember being in their living room and saying to Milton, somebody should do a visual book about your work." In the '70s Glaser had already established his reputation in the field with his album designs (the one for Dylan's Greatest Hits is a classic), posters and the remaking of New York magazine with editor Clay Felker. "And I remember what Milton said," continued Mayer, who was working at Avon at the time. "He said: 'Ask me.' I said that I had never done a visual book before and he said, 'So what? I'll help you.'"
As old friends often do, Glaser and Mayer talk over each other, remarkably without interrupting the flow of conversation by even a beat. As with the first book, the second, titled Art Is Work, begins with a dialogue, Mayer asking Glaser about his work and about design in general. While it took them several years to create the first Glaser book, working weekends in the same shed in Woodstock where Mayer started Overlook with his father, Art Is Work was completed in a bit over a year. This time, they worked mostly from their city offices. After some last-minute changes, Art Is Work is now on press in Hong Kong, and will be shipped to stores in November.

"It seemed more difficult this time," said Glaser, now 70.

"We were more resilient 25 years ago," answered Mayer, 64.

Art Is Work is just one project for Glaser this season. Also in November the artist, who has had exhibitions all over the world, will be featured at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art and in a more retrospective show at the American Institute of Graphic Artists in New York. The media--and not just Glaser's alma mater New York magazine--are already lining up to cover his new book and his life's work. In one of the most intriguing match-ups of talent and criticism, Tom Wolfe is doing a feature story on Glaser for the November issue of Graphis magazine.

Also in Book News, Barbara R ther reveals 12 Gifts that Keep Giving



"This could be a very big fall for me," said Glaser, as Mayer listed all of the things in the works for his friend's publicity campaign, including a lecture at New York City's Cooper-Hewitt Museum. Glaser is both appreciative of his fame and humble about it. One of the reasons he wrote Art Is Work, he told PW, is "to let people know I'm still alive. It's been a long time since the first book and they might wonder."

With 21,000 copies on order, Art Is Work has one of the largest print runs for Overlook since, well, the first Glaser book.

Paula Scher, partner in the graphic design firm Pentagram and former president of the N.Y. chapter of the AIGA, told PW that Glaser played multiple roles in the development of the field. "First of all, there's both the influence and symbolic importance of Pushpin," Scher explained, referring to the firm Glaser co-founded. "It was the first major non-European graphic design movement, which flew in the face of the international style of the '60s." She further described Glaser as an image maker--from his work on New York magazine to the "I ?NY" campaign and the logo for Tony Kushner's Angels in America--his images were and still are instantaneously recognized. At the same time, during the '70s, Glaser was busy writing a very successful series of books called The Underground Gourmet (S&S) with his pal Jerome Snyder. "Then there's Milton's persona as a guru and a teacher," Scher said, finishing her point about Glaser's vast influence in the world of design and beyond.

The second book had a few false starts, beginning about 10 years ago. Mayer explained: "We started on it three or four times, but we didn't get very far. I think, Milton, you were looking at more of a pure teaching book at that time [Glaser has taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York for 40 years]. " Glaser noted that mortality played a significant role in the timing of the second book. "I felt much less mortal then," he said. "I figured I had plenty of time ahead of me. Then, at a certain point, you realize that you don't have that much time and the imperative to do something increases."

Decades of both producing a wide range of work and teaching affected the final product in Art Is Work. PW suggests that it is more personal book in tone. "It is a more personal book," Glaser agreed. "I also think I've learned to develop the sense of contact with the reader and connection that is based not so much on professional terminology." Viewing jargon as a snooze, Glaser steers clear of it wherever he can. He approaches writing about graphic design much as he d s creating a graphic design. "The subject of design is how to engage people in a pleasurable experience," he said. "When you bring pleasure, people pay attention, and you want people to be attentive." More than anything else, he said, design is about clarity.

One of the biggest hurdles in creating Art Is Work involved the sheer number of projects Glaser has worked on in the more than quarter century since Graphic Design came out. "You can't imagine what's not in the book," said Mayer, nor what treasures remain hidden in Glaser's basement in Woodstock. He has over 200,000 designs to his credit, from logos to restaurant interiors to supermarkets and now Web sites. (Screaming Media is a Milton Glaser project.) "I can't figure out when I did all of this stuff," said the artist.

Much more than a showcase for his life's work, Art Is Work presents Glaser's ideas about art, design and work. "I wanted to call it Later Works, but Peter didn't like that. He said, 'give us something to work with, for God's sake,'" recalled Glaser. So for a time there were two working titles: Art Is Whatever and Art Is Work.

The subject of art as work dominated much of the dinner conversation. Obviously, it is a topic that has come up before, and one in which Mayer seems happy to let Glaser lead. In the introduction to the book, Glaser expands on an idea from a talk he gave several years ago in London, in which he said the word "art" should be abandoned in favor of "work." "[Art] is so mischievous a word. It is used for all kinds of purposes--self-aggrandizing being one of them--and since there is no cultural agreement on what it is and since it basically now resides in this highly subjective world, if we change it to 'work' and we establish some standards, I think this will eliminate all kinds of problems." Glaser's essays on the issues involved in graphic design and art are an element new to the second book.

"Like everybody else, he's been thinking for many, many years," said Mayer. "He has thoughts about all of these subjects."

Mayer told PW that he owes a great deal to Glaser, and not only for the privilege of publishing his books at Overlook. The two men met in 1958, when Mayer, just out of the army, needed a job. "I just knew I wanted to do something with words," said Mayer. By coincidence, on the street in Manhattan Mayer ran into a kindergarten friend who just happened to be working for Glaser at the time. Although Mayer had never heard of Glaser, he went to his studio, they met and then Glaser arranged for Mayer to meet publishing people like Roger Straus, Cy Nelson (at Dutton) and Clay Felker (then at Esquire). Why did Glaser put himself out for Mayer? "He seemed like a man who would make his way in the world and I thought, why not," Glaser answered. Perhaps it takes one to know one.

12 Gifts That Keep On Giving
Charlene Costanzo had a simple message. "I felt deeply that children in this country needed to be offered a message of hope and love," said the author of The Twelve Gifts of Birth (Featherfew). But there's nothing simple about the marketing success for this attractive, 9"×8", $19.95 gift book. In 18 months it has sold more than 300,000 copies. It made the Booksense 76 list in July and August, and was tagged "On the Rise" this month. For a book self-published by a first-time author, the success comes as a bit of a surprise. But "I knew from the gift world that if you present sincere emotion, and it is packaged and priced well, it will sell," Costanzo said."The book sold so quickly I've had to reorder numerous times," said Carol Curren, community relations manager of Barnes & Noble in Freehold, N.J. "Our customers rarely purchased just one copy--they bought six, seven, even 10 copies at a time. I have never found it easier to handsell a book."
The Twelve Gifts is an inspirational children's book that was born from a dream Costanzo had, in which 12 qualities--strength, beauty, courage, compassion, hope, joy, talent, imagination, reverence, wisdom, love and faith--were bestowed on every child at birth to help them navigate through their lives. Each "gift" is exemplified by a short verse and accompanied by photos of children of all races taken by Jill Reger. There are also illustrations by Wendy Ackinson.
Costanzo, a former political speechwriter, told PW she felt she had an important message to share, but "when I couldn't find anyone who agreed," she began cold-calling people in the publishing industry for information on illustrators and art directors as well as production pointers. With an initial self-financed print run of 5,000 copies, she brought The Twelve Gifts to the New Age Expo in Denver in June of '98, and to the Chicago Gift Show a few months later. Non-bookstore sales were steady from the start, and Featherfew soon was able to reprint 20,000 more.
Early in 1999, on a hunch that the book would do well if it were target marketed to gathering spots for women and children, Costanzo approached Books Are Fun, a direct-marketing company that sells in temporary kiosks set up in schools, hospitals and other public venues. Books Are Fun's test marketing turned out to be a sold-out success; when it went on to print 225,000 copies, it changed the scope of the project considerably.
Major wholesalers, including K n Pacific, Bookpeople and Ingram, took on the book later in '99. New Leaf, which caters to the New Age market, has also seen substantial sales, as has the Unity religious bookstore group in the Midwest. Costanzo also sells books direct on-line at www.Featherfew.com.
Costanzo's unusual, often quirky and always expansive approach to marketing has been a key aspect of the book's cumulative success. In the spring of 1999, she and her husband, Frank (who is also her business partner), traveled 26,000 miles to mPPore than 100 cities in 45 states, making 130 scheduled appearances at schools, bookstores and other community locations.
From the beginning, Costanzo set out to cross-market The Twelve Gifts by combining strategic planning with a family-size dose of missionary zeal. As a result of contacts she made on tour, news of the book spread among churches, schools, hospitals and social services organizations. Teachers, counselors and therapists began to use the book in values training and character education classes. "It has become our bestseller for births and expectant mothers," said Terry Guida, co-owner of Pooh's Corner Bookstore in Winter Park, Fla. "At Valentine's, parents were buying it for teens. This book spans the generations. It is truly unique the way it applies to all ages, genders, races and denominations."
"One of the most gratifying things for me is the way people have taken this book and made it their own," said Costanzo." Among the groups of readers inspired by the book are incarcerated women, many of them mothers, who have found The Twelve Gifts to be a useful tool for rehabilitation. They find in the book the words of self-esteem and confidence that their own upbringings lacked. Costanzo has visited women's prisons in Vandalia, Mo., Des Moines, Iowa, and San Diego, Calif., as well as Covenant Houses in Alaska and New York. Though she sells relatively few copies in these venues, and often gives copies away, the point, she said, is to take the book to those who will most appreciate it.
A key factor in the book's larger appeal, the author noted, is that its message is spiritual without being religious. "It has the makings of a classic," said Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Ariz. "The Twelve Gifts of Birth is one of those treasures that independent bookstores love to find and sell because it is so wonderful--well made, with beautiful illustrations and exquisite text. It sells well every month for us."
Featherfew is producing a Twelve Gifts Journal and will expand its line with other titles focused on inspirational themes related to children and family. As an author, Costanzo has also sold two children's book manuscripts to Putnam, which she felt were outside the scope of Featherfew. Though she is not planning to sell book rights to The Twelve Gifts, she did strike a licensing deal in early 1999 with St. Paul, Minn.-based Season's mail-order company, which offers the book and an exclusive Twelve Gifts baby blanket, both of which have sold well through its catalogue.
--Barbara R ther
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