In professional work - certainly in the arts and graphics - 99% of people have zero courage. They blow with the wind.
George LoisRead
In any creative industry, the fact that others are moving in a certain direction is always proof positive, at least to me, that a new direction is the only direction.
Interpretation
When everyone is following a trend, it often indicates that innovation lies in pursuing a different path.
George Lois suggests that in creative fields, observing a collective movement towards a specific direction can signal the necessity for change and innovation. Instead of adhering to trends, true creativity flourishes when one dares to explore uncharted areas, as this often leads to unique and original expressions.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of originality, this quote illustrates why it's vital to break away from established norms.
In professional work - certainly in the arts and graphics - 99% of people have zero courage. They blow with the wind.
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.
Truly great images make all the other millions of images you look at unimportant. You gotta look at an image and understand it in a nanosecond.
I've done truth to power all my life. It's got me into trouble, but who cares?
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.
Great advertising, in and of itself, becomes a benefit of the product.
Do you think of yourself as a creative personality? If you do, you are both fortunate and correct, in fact the beautiful truth is that everyone is creative and we all have the ability to develop our creative potential. It is wise to remember that the person who follows the crowd will get no further than the crowd. The person who walks the creative path is likely to find they are in places no one has ever been before.
Originals are nonconformists, people who not only have new ideas but take action to champion them. They are people who stand out and speak up. Originals drive creativity and change in the world. They're the people you want to bet on.
A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.
There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say ‘wow,’ and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas.
It isn't till now, in the American Century, as we have recklessly dubbed it, that tribal pressures toward conformity have been brought to bear so ruthlessly upon men and women seeking to work creatively.
Never say no to an idea - you never know how that idea will ignite another idea.
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