George Lois | Good Karma Creative
| The legendary George Lois is the most creative, prolific advertising communicator of our time. Running his own ad agencies, he is renowned for dozens of marketing miracles that triggered innovative and populist changes in American (and world) culture. In his twenties he was a pioneer of the landmark Creative Revolution in American Advertising. He introduced and popularized the Xerox culture; he created the concept and prototype design for the New York supplement for the Herald Tribune (the forerunner of New York magazine); made a failing MTV a huge success with his “I Want My MTV” campaign; helped create and introduce VH1; created a new marketing category “gourmet frozen foods,” with his name Lean Cuisine; and (by inventing yet another new marketing phenomenon) persuaded America to change their motor oil at thousands of Jiffy Lube stations. He made the totally unknown Tommy Hilfiger immediately famous with just one ad; and saved USA Today from extinction with his breakthrough “singing” TV campaign. In 1994, almost overnight, he change the perception of ESPN from a “demolition derby” sports channel to the number one sports network with his dynamic “In Your Face” campaign. Additionally he created the winning ad campaigns for four U.S. Senators: Jacob Javits (R-NY); Warren Magnusen (D-WA); minority leader Hugh Scott (R-PA); and Robert Kennedy (D-NY). His list of breakthrough ad campaigns goes on and on. The only music video he created, Jokerman by Bob Dylan, win the MTV Best Music Video of the Year Award in 1983. And in 2008, the Museum of Modern Art installed 38 of his iconic Esquire covers in its permanent collection, celebrated by a year-long exhibit George Lois: The Esquire Covers @ MoMA.George Lois is the only person in the world inducted into The Art Directors Hall of Fame, The One Club Creative Hall of Fame, a Lifetime Achievement Award from AIGA, and the Society of Publication Designers, as well as a subject of the Master Series at the School of Visual Arts.
When Lois received the AIGA Gold Medal in 1986, Andrea Codrington Lippke noted in his bio, “Nothing compares to a phone conversation he had a few years ago with his beloved pal, the late Paul Rand. Lois’s full lips form a tender smile as he remembers Rand saying, ‘You son of a bitch, did you see the Times this morning? You were an answer in the crossword puzzle!’” |
ONLINE:georgelois.com1996 AIGA Gold Medal Award |
