Very few advertising people have had a positive impact on our culture. Today commercials seem to involve the craven lust for something--a woman, a beer or a phony pill to ask your doctor about. Or they are a blight on our culture because their punchlines revolve around a fart, belch, bosom or talking baby. Or they are so shoddily written and conceived and directed with such lack of imagination that they wash over us like the flotsam and jetsam of a declining civilization.
Today's NYTimes has a nice article on George Lois. Lois was, in my opinion, someone who mattered. Though I didn't love his later ads, I admired his opus. Especially his Esquire covers, 31 of which are being featured at MoMA.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/arts/design/27mcgr.html
Lois made images that stuck, that said something, that defined and focused. Mostly by breaking every rule there was. He believed in punching people in the face with his design. The three images here are all around 40-years old. They still speak--and loudly--without shouting.
that was when people who ran business and magazines still had guts.
ReplyDeleteNow replaced by lawyers, or lawyer like minds, I'm afraid.