Big Data vs. Milton Glaser

Reconciling design practices in an era of machine-learning.

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to be a student and an employee of Milton Glaser. My mind was a sponge to his sage advice and philosophies, which, like many other legendary faculty in the MFA Design program at the School of Visual Arts, centered on an ontology that a designer should experiment (mostly in private) and present a single version of their work. Data does not play a major role in how he designs and he smirks with pride to admit he has never used a computer. He’s quoted as saying,

The Empire State Building under construction in 1930.

When Milton Glaser was born, the Empire State Building wasn’t finished yet. Sliced bread was literally only a year old. His career developed at a time when big data, analytics, and design research were luxuries too expensive for most to afford and were therefore impractical. Even the best design agencies could only perform market research at a barely-significant sample size. His methodologies were born out of an era where, in a vacuum of proof about the efficacy of a designer’s work, one needed instead to speak confidently and…

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Shawn Sprockett
Bytesized Treats

Designer at SSPROCKETT and faculty at California College of Arts. Formerly of Airbnb, Meta, Google, Apple, Milton Glaser, and Condé Nast.