Ilić was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His life, schooling and most of his Yugoslav-period-career was located at Zagreb, Croatia. He graduated from the School of Applied Arts in Zagreb, published his first works in 1973, and has since been publishing comics and illustrations in magazines, such as Omladinski tjednik, Modra Lasta, Tina, Pitanja, and Start and has become the art and comics editor of the students' magazine Polet in 1976. That's when he organized an informal organization of the comic book creators Novi kvadrat, that has been widely connected to the Novi valmusical movement in Zagreb. Ilić design album covers of some of the most prominent Yugoslav bands of the time, such as Bijelo dugme, Prljavo kazalište, Parni Valjak, Azra, Film and many others. He designed the cover for the first album of Prljavo kazalište, which became a widely recognizable and iconic symbol for Punk rock in ex-Yugoslavia. He even wrote lyrics for the song Čovjek za sutra. Ilić appears in Sretno dijete, Igor Mirković's documentary about the Novi val movement in Zagreb, as one of the most prominent figures of the movement. He also designed covers for the Croatian political weekly magazine Danas, as well as posters for theaters such as Teatar & TD and posters for movies. His most famous movie poster is for cult film Ko To Tamo Peva.
International career
In 1977, Ilić started publishing his works in the established comics magazines outside Yugoslavia, such as Alter Alter, Métal Hurlant, Heavy Metal and Marvel's Epic Illustrated. In 1980, Novi kvadrat ceased to exist and Ilić entirely stopped working on the comics, and focused upon illustration and graphic design. In 1982, he started working for the Italian magazine Panorama.
American period
In March 1986 he moved to New York. He started publishing his illustrations in Time, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and many other prominent and influential newspapers and magazines. In 1991, he becomes an art director of Time International, and the following year he became art director of the Op-Ed in the New York Times. In 1995 he founded Mirko Ilić Corp., a graphic design and 3-D computer graphics and motion picture title studio. In 1998, he created the title sequence for the romantic comedy You've Got Mail with Milton Glaser and Walter Bernard. In 1999, Mirko Ilić Corp. began designing visual identities for luxury hotels and restaurants. Some of his hotel clients include ' in New York City, The Joule Hotel in Dallas, TX, Casa Moderna Hotel in Miami, FL, and Alpina Gstaad in Switzerland. Some restaurant clients include Le Cirque and La Fonda Del Sol in New York City, "Summit" and "Play" at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, ' in Dallas, TX, and "The Seafood Bar", "Echo", "Flagler Stakehouse", and "HMF" at The Breakers in Palm Beach Florida. Since 1999, Ilić has been a professor at the School of Visual Arts for their MFA in Illustration program. In 2012, Print published his monograph by Dejan Kršić with preface by Milton Glaser and introduction by Steven Heller. In 2015, 38 pieces of his artwork were included in the collection of the . MoMA acquired artwork including posters, LP designs from his Yugoslavian period, and his designs of The New York Times OP-ED pages. In September 2015, four of his pieces were exhibited for the first time in MoMA's exhibition . His work is also in collections of Smithsonian Institution, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and many other institutions and museums. His original illustrations for the covers of Time Magazine, among other pieces are a part of the in Washington D.C. Since 2017, Ilić is the creator and organizer of the , an international exhibition that brings together leading designers from around the world to create posters on the topic of Tolerance. Past participating designers have included Milton Glaser, Paula Scher, Ralph Steadman, David Hillman, and :de:Gunter Rambow|Gunter Rambow, among others. To date, the show was exhibited over 64 times in 27 different countries. In 2019 he established the Tolerance Project Inc., a non for profit organization.
Personal life
Books about graphic design
Ilić is a co-author of several notable books about graphic design. Co-authored with Steve Heller:
Genius Moves: 100 Icons of Graphic Design
Handwritten - expressive lettering in digital age
Anatomy of Design
Stop Think Go Do
Lettering Large: Art & Design of Monumental Typography
