The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 1976–1977
I ♥ NY: a pro-bono taxi doodle becomes New York State's most imitated logo
Commissioned by New York State to revive 1970s tourism, Milton Glaser's donated taxi-doodle logo became one of the world's most copied marks.
New York State Department of Commerce
What it had to solve
In the mid-1970s New York City faced bankruptcy, layoffs, a crime wave and a garbage strike. Governor Hugh Carey's administration asked the state Department of Commerce to repair the city's image and revive tourism.
How it works
In 1976 New York City was reeling: a billion-dollar deficit, looming bankruptcy, 300,000 laid-off workers, rising crime and a garbage-collection strike. Governor Hugh Carey argued that despite everything people still loved New York, and the state Department of Commerce, through deputy commissioner William S. Doyle, commissioned the ad agency Wells Rich Greene to repair the city's image and revive tourism.
The agency produced the slogan 'I Love New York' with a song and television campaign. Asked to capture it graphically, Milton Glaser doodled I ♥ NY on an envelope while riding in a taxi — the heart replacing 'love', the letters stacked above NY in American Typewriter, echoing Robert Indiana's LOVE sculpture. He donated the design to the state, pro bono.
The mark went into public use in 1977, and the public did the rest. Because viewers have to decode it character by character — I, heart, NY — completing the message makes it stick. It became New York's official state slogan, was trademarked by the state's economic development agency, and is now one of the world's most imitated logos, generating roughly $30 million a year in licensed merchandise.
Why it lands
- A viewer must decode the mark — I, heart, NY — and completing that small puzzle makes the message personal and memorable.
- It replaced a word with a universal symbol, so it translated across languages without a translation.
- Donated pro bono, the design belonged to the public, which adopted and spread it freely.
- It gave a struggling city a message of love at a moment when the news was all crisis.
What it did
First used in 1977, I ♥ NY became New York State's official slogan and one of the most imitated logos in history, licensing roughly $30 million a year in official merchandise.
What you can take
Make the audience finish the message — I, heart, NY — and they remember it; pro-bono work donated to the public can outperform any paid campaign.
Since then
After 9/11 Glaser reworked the mark as 'I ♥ NY More Than Ever' with a darkened heart, and it became a symbol of solidarity. New York State trademarked the logo in 1977 and licenses it through Empire State Development; by 2013 the state was filing thousands of trademark objections against unlicensed uses. In 2009 Glaser became the first graphic designer to receive the U.S. National Medal of Arts, a recognition widely credited to the logo's reach.
Sources
- Milton Glaser. I ♥ NY concept sketch. 1976
- NYC Fun Facts: The Surprising History of the Iconic "I Love NY" Logo
- Milton Glaser. I Love NY More than Ever. 2001
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