George Lois

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

George Lois (born in 1931) is an American Art Director, designer, advertising leader and author. George Lois is best known for the for Esquire Magazine[1] which he produced as a consultant for Esquire from 1962 to 1972, never actually being an Esquire employee. Lois' Esquire covers offered a controversial statement on life in the 1960s with subjects including Marilyn Monroe, Norman Mailer, Muhammad Ali, Andy Warhol, Germaine Greer, and Richard Nixon. In 2008, The Museum of Modern Art exhibited 32 of Lois' 92 Esquire covers. MOMA Exhibit

Contents

[edit] Background

George Lois was born in the Bronx, New York on June 26, 1931, the son of Greek immigrants. Lois attended the High School of Music and Art, and received a basketball scholarship to Syracuse University, although he chose to attend Pratt Institute. After attending only one year at Pratt Institute, Lois was drafted by the Army to fight in the Korean War.

[edit] Career

After the war, Lois went to work for the advertising and promotions department at CBS where he designed print and media projects. In 1959 he was hired by the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB).

After one year at DDB, Lois recruited Fred Papert and Julian Koenig to form Papert, Koenig, Lois, in 1960. In 1967 he left to form Lois, Holland, Callaway.

George Lois became famous for what he called "The Big Idea"[2]. Running his own ad agencies, he is renowned for dozens of marketing miracles that triggered innovative and populist changes in American (and world) culture. In his twenties he was a pioneer of the landmark Creative Revolution in American Advertising. He introduced and popularized the Xerox culture; he created the concept and prototype design for the New York supplement for the Herald Tribune (the forerunner of New York magazine); made a failing MTV a huge success with his “I Want My MTV” campaign; helped create and introduce VH1; created a new marketing category, Gourmet Frozen Foods, with his name Lean Cuisine; and (by inventing yet another new marketing phenomenon) persuaded America to change their motor oil at thousands of Jiffy Lube stations. He made the totally unknown Tommy Hilfiger immediately famous with just one ad; and saved USA Today from extinction with his breakthrough “singing” TV campaign. In 1994, almost overnight, he changed the perception of ESPN from a “Demolition Derby” sports channel to the number one sports network with his dynamic “In Your Face” campaign. Additionally he created the winning ad campaigns for four U.S. Senators: Jacob Javits (R-NY); Warren Magnuson (D-WA); Minority Leader Hugh Scott (R-PA); Robert Kennedy (D-NY). His list of breakthrough ad campaigns goes on and on. Additionally, the only music video he created, Jokerman by Bob Dylan, won the MTV Best Music Video of the Year Award in 1983.

George Lois is the only person in the world inducted into The Art Directors Hall of Fame, The One Club Creative Hall of Fame, with Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Society of Publication Designers, as well as a subject of the Master Series at the School of Visual Arts.

[edit] Controversy

The June 19, 2009 episode of the radio program This American Life featured a segment in which several of Lois' former associates claimed he took credit for ad campaigns, ad copy and Esquire covers that were partially or wholly the work of others. The program contained interviews from an Esquire photographer and two of Lois' former partners, Julian Koenig and Fred Papert.[3] In an interview done prior to those accusations though Lois states that the famous "Think small" ad that he allegedly claims to have written was the idea of his former partner Julian Koenig.[4]

[edit] Awards

[edit] Bibliography

  • Lois, George (2008). George Lois on his Creation of the Big Idea. New York: Assouline. pp. 240. ISBN 978-2754032291. 
  • Hilfiger, Tommy and Lois, George (2007). Iconic America: A Roller-Coaster Ride through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture. New York: Universe. pp. 350. ISBN 978-0781573231. 
  • Lois, George (2003). $ellebrity: My Angling and Tangling With Famous People. New York: Phaedon. pp. 272. ISBN 0714881242. 
  • Heller, Steven; Lois, George; Helfand, Jessica; and Rand, Paul (1999). Paul Rand. New York: Phaedon Press. pp. 255. ISBN 978-0714834387. 
  • Lois, George (1996). Covering the '60s: George Lois -- The Esquire Era. New York: Monacelli. pp. 192. ISBN 978-1825434245. 
  • Lois, George and Pitts, Bill (1993). What's the Big Idea?: How to Win with Outrageous Ideas (That Sell!). New York: Plume. pp. 304. ISBN 978-0459069385. 
  • Lois, George (1991). What's the Big Idea?. New York: Doubleday Press. pp. 288. ISBN # 978-0384154869. 
  • Lois, George and Pitts, Bill (1977). The Art of Advertising: George Lois on Mass Communication. New York: Harry N Abrams. pp. 336. ISBN 978-0812303739. 
  • Lois, George (1972). George, Be Careful. New York: Saturday Review Press. pp. 245. ISBN 978-0841501904. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Video

[edit] References

  1. ^ "George Lois' Esquire covers are considered among the most memorable propaganda imagery in any medium, and certainly the most provocative in the history of the magazine industry." The New York Times
  2. ^ University of Texas Graduate School of Advertising
  3. ^ This American Life, 383: Origin Story, available at http://thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=383 (last visited June 23, 2009).
  4. ^ "We have to sell a Nazi car in a Jewish Town": George Lois on the Creative Revolution, available at http://vimeo.com/imseng.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lois"