13 Quotes & Sayings By George Lois

George Lois is a contemporary American satirist, satiric artist, and graphic designer. He has become known for his "lifestyle" cartoons and his political cartoons. He began his career working as a comic book artist for DC Comics, and later became the first full-time staff member of the legendary New York City advertising agency, George Lois & Partners. His clients have included Calvin Klein, Coca-Cola, Chanel No Read more

5, Kmart, Kodak, Lipton Tea, MTV, MTV II, NBC, Pepsi Cola II, Rosetta Stone, Tiffany & Co., Universal Studios, Xerox Corporation and many others. Lois' work has appeared in publications ranging from The New Yorker to Vanity Fair to Sports Illustrated.

1
If a man does not work passionately - even furiously - at being the best in the world at what he does, he fails his talent, his destiny, and his God. George Lois
2
Only with absolute fearlessness can we slay the dragons of mediocrity that invade our gardens. George Lois
3
Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. George Lois
4
If you don't burn out at the end of each day, you're a bum. George Lois
5
Advertising, an art, is constantly besieged and compromised by logicians and technocrats, the scientists of our profession who wildly miss the main point about everything we do… George Lois
6
Ad agencies do all kinds of market research that ask people what they think they want, and instead, you should be creating things that you want. If you do something and you get it, the rest of the world will get it, too. Trust your own instincts, your own intellect, and your own sense of humor. George Lois
7
All the people who run agencies, all the important people in agencies have taken communication courses, marketing courses, advertising courses, and courses basically teach advertising as a science, and advertising is so far from a science it isn't even funny. Advertising is an art. George Lois
8
The 1960s was a heroic age in the history of the art of communication - the audacious movers and shakers of those times bear no resemblance to the cast of characters in 'Mad Men.' George Lois
9
Look at the news stand, you know? I mean, it's a cacophony of famous people or people who want to be famous with blurbs all around it, and it's supposed to be, you know, that's supposed to be creativity in journalism. My God, it's unbelievable. It's shocking. George Lois
10
In professional work - certainly in the arts and graphics - 99% of people have zero courage. They blow with the wind. George Lois
11
I don't design. I get what I think is a big idea, and I put the idea down. I'm not a designer. I'm a communicator. George Lois
12
Because advertising and marketing is an art, the solution to each new problem or challenge should begin with a blank canvas and an open mind, not with the nervous borrowings of other people's mediocrities. That's precisely what 'trends' are - a search for something 'safe' - and why a reliance on them leads to oblivion. George Lois