Cover Design work by George Lois

I was at Grayden Carter’s office once, looking at his stuff on the wall, the designers had some spreads up there and they’re pretty nice looking, and I’m kibitzing, saying things like, ‘Gee, maybe you do that or do that,’ and they’re all excited saying, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow. That’s terrific.’ Then Grayden comes along, and we’re looking at the stuff on the wall and he starts telling them, ‘Put stuff in it. C’mon, what’re you doing?’

It’s almost a non-visual attitude. It’s kind of a reproduction of Internet pages. Every corner is filled with something.

…Forget the white space. I could easily tell people today, ‘You know what you gotta do with this magazine? Get some fucking white space into it.’ But that white space doesn’t make something an exciting picture. But to be able to design a spread and do it your way, and make it dramatic and effective. It could be jammed with photography or with the image, but it acts as a surprise. A punch in the mouth. But I just don’t see that happening.

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I stumbled across the interview above with legendary adman/designer George Lois and felt like I found another member of my tribe.

You know what I mean… You’re going along convinced all of your thoughts and imaginings about what the world is and how it works are right but then you think: “I’m the only fool who knows any of this.”

Then you discover someone… you read about them or maybe they’re just invented by you or sometimes you even find them in life and you know… we belong to the same tribe.

A tribe of foolish seekers. A tribe of questions. A tribe of really seeing reality but then imagining it over all at once. You’ve gone a long way just to come home again.

It’s like another tribal member Carl Gustav Jung said:

“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.”

See? That’s my tribe.

You can see more of Lois’ work here and read all about him here.

Post Script:

Oh yeah and maybe… just maybe I dug Lois because he instantly reminded me (and i guess others too) of another adman I stumbled upon this winter, Don Draper of Mad Men fame.

If you haven’t watched the show…. I didn’t… then netflix it right now and dig in. You can come back here and thank me.