Don’t Look Back

The Life Aquatic poster… Milton Glaser‘s Bob Dylan poster.
Gothamist is running a contest to promote Wes Anderson’s cruelly under-hyped film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou this week.
What caught my eye immediately was the excellent poster for the film (above left), an obvious homage to Milton Glaser’s iconic Bob Dylan poster from 1966 (above, right). Since the Zissou image didn’t link, I don’t know its provenance, but I was surprised that there was no mention of Dylan or Glaser, since just last week, Gothamist was singing Glaser’s praises in a piece about the new New York Magazine logo.
I guess Glaser‘s just one of those artists whose work is so ubiquitous, it’s become wallpaper for the culture. It’s like “Happy Birthday to You”: Everyone knows that song, but can anyone name its composer? It’s a shame, too, since Glaser created so many excellent, memorable designs, like the beloved logo for Grand Union.
Related: “When I went upstairs, my bedroom felt like an overwarm sickroom. The clearest remaining vestige of Tom was the ‘Don’t Look Back’ poster that he’d taped to a flank of his dresser where Bob Dylan’s psychedelic hair style wouldn’t always be catching my mother’s censorious eye.” The Comfort Zone, by Jonathan Franzen, The New Yorker, Nov. 29, 2004.