Work, Life, Tools: The Things We Use to Do the Things We Do

by Milton Glaser, Steelcase Design, George M. Beylerian (Foreword)

Work, Life, Tools artfully examines the tools people use in their everyday lives. Developed by Steelcase Design Partnership and designed by Milton Glaser, this original portrait of late-twentieth-century American work and culture serves as a time capsule for generations to come. Fifty individuals from diverse backgrounds and professions were asked to identify the most essential tool used in their daily lives. Captured in a wide variety of work settings in large-scale color photographs, each person is pictured with his or her coveted tool. Analytical and anecdotal writings about the importance of the chosen item -- presented along with compelling interviews -- explain the relationship of the tool to each person's professional and personal accomplishments. Seen here are Simon & Schuster's Michael Korda and his OXXXX fountain pen, the Guggenheim's Thomas Krens and his binder clip, DC Comics' Jenette Kahn and her bed, Duane Michals and his camera, art critic Arthur Danto and his Compaq Aero computer, architect Laurinda Spear and her set of scales, and Francis Ford Coppola and his IBM ThinkPad 560 computer, as well as other engineers, architects, designers, writers, editors, filmmakers, musicians, actors, curators, artists, and entrepreneurs. Stanley Abercrombie's introductory essay explores the importance of tools and their design, the relationship between work and leisure, design and the workplace, tools as agents of change in work, and our constant need to adapt and change.

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

About the author

Milton Glaser was a celebrated American graphic designer and artist, whose notable designs include the "I ❤ NY" logo, the psychedelic Bob Dylan poster, and the logos for DC Comics and Brooklyn Brewery. Born in the Bronx in 1929, he was educated at Cooper Union. In 1954, together with Seymour Chwast, Reynold Ruffins and Edward Sorel, he co-founded Push Pin Studios, which became a guiding reference in the world of graphic design. In 1968 he co-founded New York magazine with Clay Felker. Glaser had one-man-shows at the Museum of Modern Art and the Georges Pompidou Center. He was selected for the lifetime achievement award of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum (2004) and the Fulbright Association (2011), and in 2009 he was the first graphic designer to receive the National Medal of the Arts award. Glaser died in June of 2020, of a stroke.