To many, Milton Glaser is the embodiment of American graphic design. He cofounded the revolutionary Push Pin Studios, founded New York magazine with Clay Felker, established Milton Glaser, Inc., and teamed with Walter Bernard to form the publication design firm WBMG. He also designed the famous I♥NY campaign. Glaser’s artwork has been featured in exhibits worldwide, including one-man shows at both the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. His work is also a part of several permanent collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama in 2009. He lives in New York City.
Mirko Ilic was born in Bosnia. In Europe, he drew comics, illustrations, and designed posters, books, and record covers. When he arrived in the U.S., he became the art director of Time magazine international edition. Later he became art director of the op-ed pages of the New YorkTimes. In 1995, he established his firm Mirko Ilic Corp. His company designs for a wide range of clients, from pro bono organizations to high luxury hospitality clients. His work is in collections of institutions such as the Smithsonian Museum and MoMA, New York. He organizes and curates shows and lectures around the world. Mirko teaches masters degree illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Tony Kushner was born in Mahattan in 1956, and grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He is best known for his two-part epic, Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. His other plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!, HydrotaphiaHomebody/Kabul, and Caroline, or Change, the musical for which he wrote book and lyrics, with music by composer Jeanine Tesori. Kushner has translated and adapted Pierre Corneille's The Illusion, S.Y. Ansky's The Dybbuk, Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Sezuan and Mother Courage and Her Children, and the English-language libretto for the children’s opera Brundibárby Hans Krasa. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’ film of Angels In America, and Steven Spielberg’s Munich. In 2012 he wrote the screenplay for Spielberg's movie Lincoln. His screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award, and won the New York Film Critics Circle Award, Boston Society of Film Critics Award, Chicago Film Critics Award, and several others. His books include But the Giraffe: A Curtain Raising and Brundibar: the Libretto, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak; The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present; and Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict, co-edited with Alisa Solomon. Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, a Cultural Achievement Award from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, a Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for lifetime achievement, the 2012 National Medal of Arts, and the 2015 Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater Award, among many others.
Steven Heller wears many hats (in addition to the New York Yankees): For 33 years he was an art director at the New York Times, originally on the OpEd Page and for almost 30 of those years with the New York Times Book Review. Currently, he is co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author Department, Special Consultant to the President of SVA for New Programs, and writes the Visuals column for the New York Times Book Review. Visit him online at www.hellerbooks.com.
