Forget about culture-busting significance on the newsstand. The covers of today's magazines just aren't memorable.<br /><br />Question: What do you think of magazine covers today?George <br /> Lois: Look at the newsstand, you know? I mean, it's a cacophony <br />of famous people or people who want to be famous with blurbs all around <br />it, and it's supposed to be, you know, that's supposed to be creativity <br />in journalism. My God, it's unbelievable. It's shocking. I mean, how <br />can 200 magazines, you know, do the same cover, you know? That's always <br /> there. And advertising, go home and watch advertising. You watch <br />commercials on TV and I don't, really, I'm not kidding, I don't really <br />understand what the hell, I mean, half of them, I don't understand what <br />they're talking about, you know. And most people don't understand, even <br /> if they see something that they kind of enjoy, they don't remember the <br />name of the product. So, I mean, think, I don't see, I mean, these <br />people who keep talking about we're on the advent of coming up with the <br />creative revolution, I don't see it, you know. I don't. At the same <br />time, I know there's got to be talent out there, I'm not sure who's <br />telling them what to do.You have to have an understanding that <br />everything, go back to what I said before, everything you do, you have <br />to have a [...]. If you come up with an idea, a big idea, if you show it <br /> to somebody, your wife, or friend, or a client, they should go, "Holy <br />shit." Your head shouldn't go back and forth, you know? It should be <br />such, it should be such a surprising idea, the only chance you have to <br />do anything that's memorable, is it has to be a shock when you first see <br /> it, you know? And what people do is they, they just show the, the work <br /> is so unambitious, you know? I mean, television commercials are little <br /> films, you know, something's going on and you don't quite know what's <br />going on and you say, "Well, what is it about?" And then you're looking <br /> for the, who the client is, and then when you see it, you say, "I don't <br /> get it," you know.So, I find it's a wasteland of creativity, <br />unfortunately. And I can't believe there isn't talent out there, <br />because I, you know, people, I have fans who confess, you know, a love <br />of my work, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, there's got to be something <br /> they got to learn from it. What they got to be learning from it is <br />that when you do something, it should be a knockout idea, you know? And <br /> in most cases, certainly, certainly in, which I only did for 10 years <br />for Esquire and, you know, and then in the Museum of Modern Art.But <br /> you have to, you know, when you, every cover is, when it was on the <br />newsstand, some people went, I mean, the culture went ape shit on some <br />of them. They looked at it and went, "Whoa!" You know, go to a <br />newsstand today, there's not a memorable, forget about something being <br />culturally... being a culture buster, there's nothing there that you can <br /> possibly remember. There's an ad today about, a Hearst ad today, but <br />with three magazines, they talk about they're getting awards, et cetera, <br /> et cetera, and you look at the covers and, I don't know, they're <br />nothing, you know, they're all the same cover, you know. Question: <br /> Do designers have less creative freedom today than in the 60's?George <br /> Lois: Oh, no, that's the big problem. You know, I mean, I'm <br />talking about people, about young designers not being ambitious enough, <br />etc., etc. One of the problems is that, you know, certainly in magazine <br /> design there's a lot of terrific talent doing editorial. I mean, when <br />you get the, Society of Publication Designers sends me their awards <br />every year, a book, you know, and you look through it and there's a lot <br />of terrific spreads in it and a lot of exciting stuff going on. You <br />know there's talent there, and then they show the best covers of the <br />year and they're nothing, you know?Recorded April 5, 2010
