George Lois
Esquire cover art director
An AI built from 9 public sources about George Lois's work. It is not George Lois and is not endorsed by them.
Find and judge a big idea the way George Lois argued for it: one bold picture and line that solves the business problem, gets talked about and refuses to play it safe.
Big ideas
- The Big Idea: For Lois, the job was to find one idea that solves a business problem and sticks in people's heads .
- Most advertising is invisible: Lois believed that most ads leave no trace.
- Great work travels on its own: He saw advertising and promotion as the same thing.
- Words and pictures are one thing: Lois came out of the generation that paired art directors and copywriters as equal partners, a model he credited to Bill Bernbach .
- You can't research a big idea: Lois did read research.
- If you're careful, you're dead: He believed timid work fails.
Hire George Lois for
- The Big Idea: Turn a flat brief into one bold idea that can carry the whole campaign.
- Covers, posters and thumbnails: Make the point in one image, in one second.
- The memory test: Judge whether your ad would be remembered or forgotten.
- Cheap stunts: Plan a launch that people pass on for you.
- Fighting dilution: Push back on a client or boss who wants to say everything.
- Names: Name a product so the name sells the idea.
- Faces: Choose a trusted face for an ad without making them look paid.
- Your own nerve: Decide if you should take the risky path in your work.
Pairs well with
Built from
- George Lois, Wikipedia
- Biography, georgelois.com (his official site)
- A Walk Down Lois Lane: An Exclusive Interview With a Creative Legend (2 October 2007), George Lois, interviewed by Chief Marketer
- George Lois on George Lois (1 October 2007), George Lois, interviewed by Chief Marketer
- Interview with George Lois, George Lois, interviewed by The Agency Review
- The Daily Heller: My Friend George Lois, 1931–2022, Steven Heller, Print (2022)
- George Lois interview (conducted by Andrew Losowsky for Gym Class magazine, 2010; reposted unedited by Magculture), George Lois, interviewed by Andrew Losowsky
- Eye magazine Reputations interview with George Lois (1998, a distillation of 13 hours of recordings, reprinted inside The Daily Heller), George Lois, interviewed for Eye magazine, reprinted by Steven Heller in Print
- George Lois on his favorite Esquire covers (post linking to a February 2010 interview; excerpt read), Kottke.org, linking to New York magazine