“Creativity can solve almost any problem.
The creative act, the defeat of habit by
originality, overcomes everything”
– George Lois

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/

http://www.studio360.org/yore/show011704.html

I came to magazine publishing from a career in advertising as an art director. And, for the most part, advertising is sorely missing guys like Lois. I was lucky enough to get into the business right before computers became such an integral part of the creative process – I’m old enough to have cut my teeth on hand-built mechanicals, but the fully digital production process took over pretty quickly.

But my point is this: I can watch just about any TV commercial or look at a print ad and be able to tell you if: 1) there was an actual creative team behind it and 2) if the ad started out on a layout pad with a marker or a monitor screen. It’s embarrassing what’s being passed and paid for as good advertising these days. Now THAT makes me sound old. And if it makes me sound like Lois, well, then I’m flattered. Really.

How does this all relate to photography? A great idea, or “the big idea” as Donny Deutsch has so blatantly taken from us and fouled, has the ability to make the art of a great image an accessible and memorable one. Great advertising allows photographers to make career-defining images that are seen in the most common of venues for the average joe on the street. And done right, that image is connected to a memorable and impactful idea that’s easily recalled.

There’s a difference between a designer and an advertising art director: the designer solves problems graphically and the art director solves problems with an idea. The great designers and ADs can do both, but claim one. Photographers can benefit from both, but a great shooter knows the difference between the two and understands what’s really behind the assignment when it finally gets to him/her – I just wish the agency life was still as exciting as it was in Lois’ heyday…

jonathan

jonathanbeller.com