Quotes from George Lois

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

These days, no celebrity on a magazine cover, including Brad Pitt, Oprah Winfrey, Julia Roberts, or Leonardo DiCaprio, could possibly match the visual punch of Alfred E. Neuman, the gap-toothed, grinning boy, goofily peeking out at us on the newsstand.

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.

When you think of a brand, you should immediately understand it from the advertising attitude, from the words and visuals.

People say I'm the original Don Draper. I'm not Don Draper.

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

Nothing great can come of more than three people in a room. If you had 10 incredibly bright people, nothing would come out of it.

If somebody says to you, 'MTV,' you think of Mick Jagger on a phone screaming at that phone: 'I want my MTV.' That, to me, was always the epitome of great advertising.

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

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

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.

There's no such thing as a cautious creative.

Never listen to music when you're trying go come up with a Big Idea.

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.

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

The 1960s was a heroic age in the history of the art of communication - the audacious movers and shakers of those times bear no resemblance to the cast of characters in 'Mad Men.'

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

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

If you work with convictions, people have got to listen to you.

Whatever the creative industry, when you're confronted with the challenge of coming up with a Big Idea, always work with the most talented, innovative mind available. Hopefully... that's you.

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.

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

To me, great advertising can make food taste better, can make your car run smoother. It can change your perception of something. Is it wrong to change your perception about something? Of course not. I'm not lying; I'm just saying, 'This one's more fun, this one's more exciting.'

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.