The Glaser Nobody Knows is a column featuring work by Milton Glaser that you may never have seen before. There are countless projects by the master, both produced and unpublished, that are unfamiliar even to design aficionados. All of the items in this column are part of The Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives at the School of Visual Arts, the chief repository of his legendary work.
I recently discovered that Kevin Eggers, music producer, entrepreneur, and longtime Glaser friend, passed away last year, just a month before Glaser. Eggers first joined forces with Glaser in 1966, when he founded Poppy Records, which later became Utopia Records, and finally Tomato Records. Glaser created identity programs for all three labels and many beautiful album covers, representing some of the most significant work of his career for one of his most enduring professional relationships.
Poppy’s letterhead featured Glaser’s now-famous Poppy poster image on the back.
Informational brochures for Tomato were similarly surreal.
Glaser also designed Eggers’ 1971 wedding announcement, consisting of an elegant double-sided geometric design. The wedding reception took place at Eggers’ home in Brooklyn Heights, where Townes Van Zandt composed “If You Needed Me” and “Pancho and Lefty.” According to this list of his appearances, Van Zandt played the Eggers’ wedding for “more than an hour.” (Eggers produced almost all of Van Zandt’s studio albums and later became embroiled in a legal dispute regarding control of Van Zandt’s musical legacy.)
A promotional piece for Utopia Records, c. 1972, is a dense biographical portrait of all the involved personnel, including Eggers and Glaser.
Eggers had a storied career from beginning to end. His bio below describes how he got his start:
“Kevin left the ninth grade and Brooklyn for California. The tender age of fifteen found him lugging golf bags around the Bel-Air Country Club. He got interested in the agency business, where he was soon involved in booking musical acts into bowling alleys. This experience honed his ears so much that he returned to New York, winding up in the mailroom at the G.A.C. Booking Agency. This led to a position as Sid Bernstein’s assistant and an assignment to call Liverpool to track down a then-unknown group called the Beatles…Kevin then became associate producer under Bernstein for the Beatles first New York appearance.”
Beth Kleber is the founding archivist of the Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives and the School of Visual Arts Archives in New York City. Kleber also curated the exhibition “Primary Sources: Documenting SVA and the New York Art World 1966–1985.” She lectures on design history and research, and assists students and researchers with inquiries on everything from Push Pin Studios to the activities of the renowned artists who have taught at SVA. Kleber has also worked in trade publishing and began her librarian and archivist career at New York Public Library. For more from the Glaser/SVA Archives, head to Instagram.