George Lois
George Lois (born June 26, 1931) is a Greek-American art director, designer, and author. Lois is perhaps best known for over 92 covers he designed for "Esquire" magazine from 1962 to 1973. In 2008, The Museum of Modern Art exhibited 32 of Lois's Esquire covers. Background. Lois was born in New York City on June 26, 1931, the son of Greek immigrants. Lois attended The High School of Music & Art, and received a basketball scholarship to Syracuse University, although he chose to attend Pratt Institute. Lois attended only one year at Pratt, then left to work  for Reba Sochis until he was drafted six months later by the Army to fight in the Korean War. Career. CBS. After the Korean war, Lois went to work for the advertising and promotions department at CBS where he designed print and media projects. In 1959 he was hired by the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach. After one year there, Lois was recruited by Fred Papert and Julian Koenig to form Papert Koenig Lois in 1960. PKL, as it was known, was also the first advertising agency to ever go public. Lois Holland Callaway Agency. In 1967 he left to  form Lois, Holland, Callaway. His last agency, Lois/USA, which created memorable campaigns for clients such as Minolta, Tourneau and The Four Seasons, ended its run in 1999. Braniff Airways Account. In 1968, Lois obtained the coveted Braniff International Airways account. Here he formulated the revolutionary "When You Got It, Flaunt It" Campaign for the airline that resulted in an 80 percent increase in business as a result of the new advertising. Lois incorporated a series of memorable and unique television commercials that paired unlikely celebrities as Andy Warhol and Sonny Liston sitting on Braniff aircraft seats discussing unique and  unlikely subjects. Lois also discovered that airplanes didn't have to all look alike so he commissioned Braniff planes to be painted in bold designs. The Big Idea. Lois developed what he called "The Big Idea". He has claimed to have created the "I Want My MTV" campaign; helped create and introduce VH1; named Stouffer's Lean Cuisine frozen food line; and developed marketing and messaging for Jiffy Lube stations. He created the initial advertising campaign to raise awareness of designer Tommy Hilfiger. Other clients have purportedly included: Xerox, Aunt Jemima, "USA Today", Mug Root Beer for Pepsi-Cola, ESPN  and four U.S. Senators: Jacob Javits (R-NY), Warren Magnuson (D-WA), Hugh Scott (R-PA), and Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY). Lois and Larry Sloman directed the music video for Bob Dylan's song "Jokerman." In comments about "Mad Men", a television drama that aspires to depict the advertising industry he worked in, Lois summarized his experiences of the times: "Mad Men" misrepresents the advertising industry of my time by ignoring the dynamics of the Creative Revolution that changed the world of communications forever ... That dynamic period of counterculture in the 1960s found expression on Madison Avenue through a  new creative generation—a rebellious coterie of art directors and copywriters who understood that visual and verbal expression were indivisible, who bridled under the old rules that consigned them to secondary roles in the ad-making process dominated by non-creative hacks and technocrats ... It was a testy time to be a graphic designer like me who had the rage to communicate and, to create icon rather than con. And, unlike the TV "Mad Men", we worked full, exhausting, joyous days: pitching new business, creating ideas, "comping" them up, storyboarding them, selling them, photographing them, and directing commercials. Accolades. Lois  is the only person inducted into all of the following: The Art Directors Hall of Fame, The One Club Creative Hall of Fame, with Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Society of Publication Designers, as well as a subject of the Master Series at the School of Visual Arts. He is also in the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame. He and other notable advertising alumni of his era are the subject of the movie "Art & Copy". Controversy. Lois has been accused multiple times of taking credit for others' ideas and for exaggerating his participation . On May 18, 2008, the "New York Times" published a correction of an April 27, 2008 review of a George Lois art exhibit. In the correction, the "Times" stated that the "Think Small" Volkswagen ad campaign and the "I Want My Maypo" campaign were not created by George Lois. The correction identified Julian Koenig and Helmut Krone as the creators of the Volkswagen ad campaign, and John and Faith Hubley as the creators of the Maypo campaign, contradicting Lois's published claims of credit for these ad campaigns. The June 19, 2009 episode of "This American Life" featured a segment  in which several of Lois's former associates claimed he took credit for ad campaigns, ad copy and "Esquire" covers that were partially or wholly the work of others. The program contained interviews with Carl Fischer (the photographer who shot most of the "Esquire" covers, including some falsely claimed by Lois, such as the one of St. Patrick's Cathedral) and two of Lois's former partners, Julian Koenig and Fred Papert. The program, produced by Sarah Koenig, daughter of Julian Koenig, interviewed her father, who said: In my instance, the greatest predator of my work was my one-time  partner George Lois, who is a most heralded and talented art director/designer, and his talent is only exceeded by his omnivorous ego. So where it once would've been accepted that the word would be 'we' did it, regardless of who originated the work, the word 'we' evaporated from George's vocabulary and it became 'my.' On his website, Lois also claims he designed the Nickelodeon orange logo in use from 1984 until 2010. The originators of the logo, Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert, dispute that assertion, citing the actual designers Tom Corey and Scott Nash of Corey McPherson  Nash, Boston. Lois has often asserted that he named and designed "New York" magazine. In his 1991 book "What's the Big Idea?" he states, "Let me say right now, with my hand on the Bible, I, George Lois, created "New York" magazine." Sheldon Zalaznick, the first editor of New York, has written that the new magazine "involved the following people: Jim Bellows, Dick Wald, Buddy Weiss, Clay Felker, Peter Palazzo and me. At no time did any of them ever refer to you, by name or inference, in my presence. It is possible that you are the victim of  a massive conspiracy of silence, but I do not think it likely ... The magazine was named by me and Peter Palazzo." References. Specific references: General references: