Reverse Engineer Post - Milton Glaser by Elsa Bomwan

Milton Glaser was one of the greats in the world of design. He created so many famous works. Today I diving in to one of his works from coke, I'm going to dissect the what and why behind his work and explain why it is masterful. 

When looking at this graphic I immediately notice that he followed three design principles very well. Those three design principles are repetition, proximity, and color. 

Lets start with repetition. 

I have marked in black the places where repetition is used. This design focuses heavily on repetition throughout the top half. It is busy, but it works because the bottom half is left very simple. It draws the eye in and the repetition of pattern allows your eye to move smoothly through the design.

Next lets talk about proximity.

I have marked in red where he used proximity in the design. The placement of the Coke bottle and the contents that are flowing out is carefully designed. He connected them, but allowed there to be a clear direction of the movement. It looks as if the contents are coming from the bottle, and that was a strategy he used. Next the proximity of the words and the coke bottle. The words are written on top of the coke bottle, and centered. This ties everything together creating a single silhouette. It unifies the entire design. Finally we have the proximity of the contents to each other. Each part of the contents of the bottle are swirling and connected to each other. They have the same shape and width between the stripes connecting everything and making it look uniform.

Finally I would like to address color.

 

He used color to his advantage. He portrayed that the outside of a coke bottle or perhaps the outside world is in black and white. But when you open a coke, the world bursts into screaming color. The colors he used in the swirl patterns are all bright and fit very well together. He has used color masterfully and elegantly. He uses color in a meaningful way to make coke seem more exciting and intense. The colors contrast well against each other and they work to advantage of the design. He doesn't over complicate it because he leaves plenty of white space on the bottom for the eye to rest.

In conclusion Milton Glaser was a master of design because he used design principles to his advantage. Till next time! Elsa