Milton Glaser, Don’t Eat Grapes, 1969

Milton Glaser: I’m Milton Glaser. I’m a graphic designer by profession.

The grape workers’ union approached me and they asked me if I would do a poster for them. 

Well it’s a rather simple-minded image of a bunch of grapes that is also perceived as a skull. 

The farmers in California and elsewhere were being terribly exploited at the time, and it became a national scandal. And there was a significant movement where people stopped eating grapes as a protest to these conditions. 

The idea of making a skull out of grapes was not too difficult to arrive at. It’s a little corny. But in this particular case being popular, and being obvious, and being almost comic in that kind of reference was not inappropriate. I mean you wanted to do something that had the simplicity and impact of a comic image without being funny, and one that would be easily recognized and memorable.