George Lois Advertising Quotes

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

But I love that feeling of utter depletion: It is an ecstatic sense of having committed myself to the absolute limit. But after recharging at night, I'm ready to go the next morning. Isn't that what life is all about? ~ George Lois

The business world worships mediocrity. Officially we revere free enterprise, initiative and individuality. Unofficially we fear it. ~ George Lois

Only with absolute fearlessness can we slay the dragons of mediocrity that invade our gardens. ~ George Lois

Museums are custodians of epiphanies, and these epiphanies enter the central nervous system and deep recesses of the mind. ~ George Lois

Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. ~ George Lois

What book(s) changed your life and why? I could probably list books for days, so I'll just list a few favorites: The Giver by Lois Lowry, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, the Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate, 1984 by George Orwell, the Bible, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, and Juliet by Andras Visky (which is a play, but I think it still counts). ~ Veronica Roth

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! ~ George Lois

Working hard and doing doing great work is as imperative as breathing. Creating great work warms the heart and enriches the soul. Those of us lucky enough to spend our days doing something we love, something we're good at, are rich. If you do not work passionately (even furiously) at being the best in the world at what you do, you fail your talent, your destiny, and your god. ~ George Lois

Nothing comes from nothing. You must continuously feed the inner beast that sparks and inspires. ~ George Lois

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

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. ~ George Lois

People say I'm the original Don Draper. I'm not Don Draper. ~ George Lois

Never, ever, work for bad people ~ George Lois

If you don't burn out at the end of each day, you're a bum. ~ George Lois

Everybody is so busy talking about 'Twittering' and talking about the new technologies and talking about this and that, but they don't talk about creativity. ~ George Lois

The joy of the creative process, minute by minute, hour after hour, day by day, is the sublime path to true happiness. ~ George Lois

Onwards and upwards, and never give your failures a second thought. ~ George Lois

My concern has always been with creating images that catch people's eyes, penetrate their minds, warm their hearts and cause them to act. ~ George Lois

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

A cautious creative is an oxymoron. ~ George Lois

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

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. ~ George Lois

Only mediocre ideas can be tested. ~ George Lois

I look in the mirror, and I work with the brightest person I know. ~ George Lois

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

Follow your bliss. That which you love you must spend your life doing, as passionately and as perfectly as your heart, mind and instincts allow. The sooner you identify that bliss, which surely resides in the soul of most human beings, the greater your chance of a truly successful life. In the act of creativity, being careful guarantees sameness and mediocrity, which means your work will be invisible. Better to be reckless than careful. Better to be bold than safe. Better to have your work seen and remembered, or you've struck out. There is no middle ground. ~ George Lois

The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. And I really believe that. And what I try to teach young people, or anybody in any creative field, is that every idea should seemingly be outrageous. ~ George Lois

Trends can tyrannize; trends are traps. 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. ~ George Lois

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

When I teach classes at the School of Visual Arts,, I'll ask the students, 'How many of you have been to a museum this year?' Nobody raises their hand and I go into a tirade. If you want to do something sharp and innovative, you have to know what went on before. ~ George Lois

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. ~ George Lois