What's the Secret?

How Milton Glaser came up with hundreds of brilliant ideas.

Milton Glaser, one of the world's most honored graphic designers, recently passed away. His work includes the iconic Bob Dylan poster, the internationally recognized "I Love NY" campaign, the New York Magazine logo, the AIDS poster for the World Health Organization, the Brooklyn Brewery logo. It's a long list.

How was Milton Glaser able to come up with hundreds and hundreds of brilliant ideas, again and again over a career that spanned decades?

The "Secret of Art"

Glaser provided the answer in a poster he designed for his School of Visual Arts (SVA) Subway Series campaign titled "The Secret of Art".

Here’s the poster:

Keep going until you get it.

Glaser's poster conveys the "secret" simply and beautifully. I wonder how many times he crumpled up a printout of the poster until he got the shape just right with the word 'Secret' showing exactly the way he wanted it.

But this poster is only half of Glaser's guidance. And truthfully, it's not all that new. We've all heard about perseverance. T.H. Palmer wrote the poem Try, Try Again in 1840. Glaser's rendition of it in 2008 is an ingenious expression of that truism. And yet, I'm not sure we really believe that simply persevering works. A lot of us still ask – What if I just don't have it in me?

Here's the other half of the 'secret' no one has ever told you.

If repeated efforts fail you, read what Milton Glaser said in an interview shortly before his death.

“There’s an odd combination of intuition and intelligence that has to be mustered to do this work. The part that is logical is only half the job. The other half is truly intuitive and comes out of some part of the brain that you can’t control. It’s the reconciliation of those two aspects that make things happen. But since the brain is an instrument that holds everything in the universe, it’s there somewhere.” – Milton Glaser

The solution is in "there somewhere". Why? Because "...the brain is an instrument that holds everything in the universe." Glaser is talking about ideas for a work of art, but I think this applies to everything we work at. Dealing with your kids, earning a living, getting from A to Z.

I suspect that you've never heard that "the brain is an instrument that holds everything in the universe" Not from your teachers, your mentors, your friends. Don't think it's an overstatement.

I worked as a copywriter in advertising for over thirty years. I've written nine crime thriller novels, movie scripts and television episodes. Somehow, some way the ideas I needed to move forward emerged. Every time.

Admittedly, it wasn't because I knew "the brain is an instrument that holds everything in the universe". It was mostly because I simply kept at it. That's part one. I wish I'd known back then about part two -- the brain's capacity to hold a universe full of ideas. That's why I'm sharing Mr. Glaser's guidance with you. Now you know the secret, too!