“I Love NY” has a life of its own

Submitted by MyFunCloset March 28th, 2010

The “I Love NY” logo has taken on a life of its own.

What makes this 70’s T-shirt unique, is that it has no ¬© copyright mark. It’s an original before the protected ¬© was added to the logo. Even the T-shirt & screening was quality. Now ¬© appears on all its uses. For whatever reason, the early logo use was not protected by NY state or Milton Glaser, big time graphic designer. Found at an tag sale. It was probably a souvenir never worn.

2 Responses to ““I Love NY” has a life of its own”

  1. MyFunCloset

    Allee, as an ex NYC gal, I thought you would share a fun & witty story about this logo and how it has become woven into in our culture over 30 years… or maybe not.

    • Allee Willis

      My computer must have been on the fritz yesterday because I wrote a whole long thing about this T-shirt and I see the comment never actually made it here. Then again, I was racing around like a mad woman yesterday having wayyyyyyy overbooked myself so maybe I wrote it and never hit ‘submit’ which would be very typical of me sometimes moving too fast for my own good….

      I’m racing out the door now too so this will be brief but mainly what I said was that I totally remember the I Heart NY theme song because I really like the melody and thought it fit the vibe of New York. I had already left for LA when the campaign started in 1977 and it made me feel my bi-coastalness because it was played every 30 seconds on TV.

      As far as I remember, this campaign started the use of the heart as synonymous with the word ‘love’. Good for Milton Glaser. The bad news is that I hate how prolific “I heart’ became, used on absolutely everything not the least of which is one of my least favorite movies of all time,”I heart Huckabee’s”. But with this said, it’s fantastic that you have an original one of these. Although I understand how it protects the owner I’ve never liked when the copyright symbol is all over closthes either so it’s fantastic that you have one that’s still pristine and untouched by legalities.