PROVO, UTAH.- A new exhibition at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art will introduce viewers to the work of Milton Glaser whose conceptual approach to solving design problems has positioned him at the forefront of the field of graphic design and illustration. This exhibition will allow museum visitors to see one of Glaser’s favorite ideas reflected in his work: Less is not necessarily more.

“Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realized that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless,” Glaser said at a 2002 American Institute of Graphic Arts National Design Conference. “If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realize that every part of that rug, every change of color, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. However, I have an alternative proposition that I believe is more appropriate: Just enough is more.”

“Just Enough Is More: The Graphic Design of Milton Glaser,” on view from June 30 through October 7, 2006, will explore the conceptual development of Glaser’s work from preliminary drawings to finished designs and reveal how he arrives at successful designs by including “just enough.” The approximately 100 works in this exhibition will include original drawings, sketchbooks, paintings, lithographs, silk screens and mass-produced posters that will give viewers an intimate look into Glaser’s design process by exploring the evolution of his designs, as well as the ways in which his use of specific conceptual elements informs his artistic conclusions.

“In a supermarket of choices, how do you begin to solve a design problem?” Glaser asks. “A more meaningful kind of procedure occurs when the problem is not susceptible to a reliance on previously successful formulas or to an intellectualizing of the content. The creative process is essentially a blind process where you do not pre-structure, and you have to allow information to arise in a spontaneous way uncontrollable by the will. The most meaningful developments in my work are those that occurred involuntarily and blindly, without my knowing what I was going to do, when I had enough faith in my own creative process to be willing to wait for it to happen without my will demanding it.”

Glaser has been called the “Picasso of Pop” and a “modern Renaissance man” for his ability to constantly reinvent himself in a variety of styles; and over the past 50 years, the 77-year-old graphic designer and illustrator has created some of the profession’s most influential and enduring work. The list of his design accomplishments includes everything from record album covers to packaging, from posters to newspaper designs, from toys to textiles, from books to logos, from Web sites to restaurant interiors, and from theme parks to calendars.

As co-founder of Pushpin Studios in 1954, Glaser had a powerful impact on the course of graphic design. Pushing against the formalist ideas of modernism, he incorporated narrative, humor and historical references in his quest for ground-breaking design. In 1968, he co-founded “New York Magazine,” which became the model for city magazines and spawned a multitude of imitations. Six years later, he established Milton Glaser, Inc., where he creates corporate and institutional identities for civic and commercial ventures. He has designed more than 300 posters for a variety of clients and has conceptualized the environmental and interior design of restaurants, shopping malls, amusement parks, grocery stores and other retail entities. In 1983, Glaser partnered with Walter Bernard to establish WBMG, a publication design firm located in New York City. Since its beginning, they have designed more than 50 magazines, newspapers and periodicals worldwide.

Glaser has had the distinction of one-man shows at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris. In 2004 he was selected for the lifetime achievement award of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. Today, Glaser continues to exert his influence, energy and creativity to communicate ideas for clients and causes.

“Just Enough Is More: The Graphic Design of Milton Glaser” will be on view in the Marian Adelaide Morris Cannon Gallery on the museum’s main floor during regular museum hours. Admission is free.