George Lois

If there were ever a father of Art Direction, it would be George Lois. In his legendary career, George has left an indelible mark on the world of advertising and pop culture with his work, like the “I want my MTV” campaign and the renaming of Stouffer’s frozen food products to Lean Cuisine. His Esquire magazine cover designs (now a part of MoMA’s permanent collection) are as unforgettable as George himself. And he is the only person in the world who’s accolades include induction into The Art Directors Hall of Fame and The One Club Creative Hall of Fame, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Society of Publication Designers, and his own Master Series at the School of Visual Arts. At 79 years old, George still boasts his signature blend of charm and irreverence, which is evident in his 10 ANSWERS below.

1. How would you describe your work in three words?
THE BIG IDEA: solving a specific communications problem with an audacious blend of words and images that catch people’s eyes, penetrate their minds, warm their hearts, and cause them to act.

2. Who is your creative role model?
When I was 14, aspiring to be a designer, 26 year-old Paul Rand published his iconic book, THOUGHTS ON DESIGN. My copy of it, bought, dime by dime with tip money delivering flowers all over the five boroughs for my fathers florist shop, remains the most important book in my library of over 10,000 art books. It’s thread-bare condition is witness to my reading, and memorizing, his revolutionary approach to the creation of communicative design.

3. If you had an extra hour each day what would you do with it?
There’s never enough time to read and study the history of 7,000 years of art. Mysteriously, the history of the art of mankind somehow, mythically, forms the ethos that has inspired my career of creating breakthrough ideas for selling.

4. What place in the world most inspires you and why?
My place of inspiration, indeed my spiritual day of worship, is spent each Sunday at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I experience, without fail, the Shock of the Old.

5. If you could do a different job for a day what would it be and why?
A NBA basketball player. I’m 79 and still play hoops, passionately.

6. What is your favorite homemade gift to give?
The ultimate homemade gift is one of my wife’s apple pies. Rosie, my wife of almost 60 years, is a mom, grandmother, and an artist (see Lewandowski-lois.com), and full time chef at my abode, whose apple pies are legendary among the cognoscenti. (For a photo of one of her masterpieces, see page 85 in my book, Iconic America.)

7. What is your favorite object in your home?
A 6th century B.C. Corinthian helmet, a bronze masterpiece of Greek technology, made in one piece that covered the head of a Hoplite warrior, leaving only the eyes clear – an iconic object of beauty, as seen in the myriad of painted, archaic Greek amphoras. I’ve been known to strut around my apartment in the dead of night wearing the regal helmet in honor of my ancient forebears.

8. What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice is the “advice” I gave to myself when I was a 14 year old student at the High School of Music and Art: “Creativity can solve almost any problem – the Big Idea, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.”

9. What websites do you use for inspiration?
I look inside myself and what I’ve learned about life, always, for inspiration. The last place for any graphic communicator to look for inspiration is inside a fucking computer.

10. When do you consider a piece of your work complete?
After I get the Big Idea, I control freak every aspect of the copy, casting, directing, editing, music, typography, etc…and keep the client the hell out of my way, when I’m producing the print or TV and most importantly, after the completion of the work.