Yummy Too

Missing from my previous post on the Cooper Union exhibit “Appetite” (closing Saturday) were images of Milton Glaser‘s work for Grand Union. The exhibition had just a few, mostly the white-on-blue grid packaging I remember from my youth. But Container List, the excellent blog of SVA’s Milton Glaser Design Study Center, has kindly posted many more at my request, plus a more detailed history of Glaser’s extensive work for the store. The designer supermarket is not just a recent, or NYC-centric, invention.

Glaser and his team’s role went beyond packaging and signage; they altered established supermarket traffic patterns to make it easier for customers to choose their own path, provided open spaces for bulk buying and successfully lobbied for uncluttered store windows to offer an expansive view of the inside of the shop (as opposed to this). There was also the noble failure of the “ripening shelf,” which depended on store workers to move produce to different shelves based on its state of ripeness.

Read the whole post here. More images (loving the cherry pie) on Flickr.

The images certainly brought back memories of not-quite-soft tissues for me (sometimes Kleenex are just better, Mom). On the softer side, the Glaser archives also hold much work by Louise Fili, whose contrasting retro style was referenced in my previous post.

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By Alexandra Lange

Alexandra Lange is an architecture critic and author, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism, awarded for her work as a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab. She is currently the architecture critic for Curbed and has written extensively for Design Observer, Architect, New York Magazine, and The New York Times. Lange holds a PhD in 20th-century architecture history from New York University. Her writing often explores the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and design, with a focus on how the built environment shapes everyday life. She is also a recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary from AIGA, an honor she shares with Design Observer’s Editor-in-Chief, Ellen McGirt.