Explore Quotes by George Lois

Nobody should force you to do a bad piece of work in your whole life - no client, no creative director, nobody. The job isn't to please the client; the job is to produce something for the client that makes them incredibly successful.

It's almost as if creativity is dead. The visual power of advertising was everywhere - now it's basically gone.

When I did 'Esquire,' I did a lot of celebrity covers, but the celebrity cover was Hubert Humphrey as a dummy, sitting on Lyndon Johnson's lap and aping his feelings about the war. I did celebrity covers that made a difference in what was going on in American culture.

What Apple did for technology is brilliant, but they didn't do nothin' for our economy.

You can't test great advertising. You can only test the mediocre. Not that I don't care about demographics. You have to understand who you're going after.

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.

I talk to all the creative directors today, and they take me aside, and they say, 'You know, it must have been great back in those days when you could do anything you wanted.' I say, 'Huh? Excuse me?' I mean, we fought. In the '60s and '70s, you fought wars with clients, and you have to continue fighting wars to do great work.

I've done truth to power all my life. It's got me into trouble, but who cares?

The producers of 'Mad Men,' you know, think I hate their show, which is true.

I had a fistfight with every kid on my block. I got about fifteen broken noses to prove it. Part of it was also because I was always drawing, and I always had an artist portfolio with me. But I was a tough kid. I won their respect.

Sometimes all the 'marketing' insight in the world can't move a client, but the creation of a truly great brand name can become a billion-dollar idea!

You don't create a magazine for your readers. You don't take a poll, you know, like the politicians do, and find out what they're thinking and what they want... You're supposed to be telling people what the hell you think is exciting and dynamic and thought-provoking, and do it - and do it your way.

I may have destroyed world culture, but MTV wouldn't exist today if it wasn't for me.

There's no such thing as a cautious creative.

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.

A truly great magazine cover surprises, even shocks, and connects in a nano-second.

Doyle Dane Bernbach was a great, great agency when I got there. There was an arrogance that everyone had, but it was a closed club. I was a guy who worked a little differently. Edgier. More punch-in-the-mouth.

The computer has played a role in destroying creativity with the Photoshop. Everybody thinks they're a designer.

Great advertising, in and of itself, becomes a benefit of the product.

If you think people are dumb, you'll spend a lifetime doing dumb work.

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.