Diamond talent
"From my days in the Bronx to becoming a rebel in the advertising industry, I have a tendency to advertise since I was a child."
193 1 year, Louis was born into a hardworking Greek immigrant family. His father is a flower farmer who works hard day and night in the Bronx in northern new york. Since the age of five, Louis has followed his father and witnessed a long and intense work. His father's rough hands full of scars left a deep impression on him.
Little Louis has so many things to fight against: first, his race, delicate crooked nose and adding a "yo" to the sentence from time to time are all the objects of ridicule by street children. Later, he became a "fool in advertising", "madman on Madison Avenue" and "rebel on Madison Avenue", which was closely related to Louis' childhood experience, and he has been resisting ever since. Louis was obsessed with painting, and it was with these daily works that he entered the prestigious music and art colleges. Referring to that time, he said, "I always thought I was the most talented student in that school." He received the best art education and was exposed to painting design, advertising and modernism. Through the appearance of street hooligans, his diamond-like talent is still appreciated by his mentor.
In my sophomore year, my teacher once asked everyone to make a design based on a rectangle. "I sat there with a blank sheet of paper in front of me and sat motionless for an hour and a half. Finally, the teacher got angry. She grabbed my blank test paper. I quickly reached out and stopped her, signed my name on the paper and said, "This is a rectangle I designed. But in the end it failed. " Louis burst out laughing when he mentioned this past.
The cliff of Louis
"Advertising is a poisonous gas that can definitely attack you and explode your lungs."
Louis is studying commercial arts at Pratt Institute. After leaving school, he worked in several small advertising companies, served as a soldier for two years and participated in the Korean War.
1959, Louis came to DDB advertising company. There, the position of artistic director is very high. He felt at home, and created many Bohemian copywriting and powerful works, among which "Think Small" for Volkswagen Beetle and Wolfschmidt's vodka are the most widely known.
Strong individualism and rebellious character made Louis finally leave DDB. After leaving DDB, Louis established his own three advertising companies (Papert, Koenig &; Lois, Lois Holland Callaway, Lois Pitts Gerschen.
During his 25-year creative career, Louis created 13224 works, from which 260 classic ideas were selected, which achieved the advertising art known as the mass communication Bible and embodied the creative style of "Louis Cliff".
Another book by Louis, Advertising Creativity (Chinese mainland's translation of Blue Trick), is also popular all over the world, making countless advertisers soul-stirring.
Break the shackles
"Great ideas cannot be tested, only mediocre ideas can be tested."
In 1930s and 1940s, traditional explanatory advertisements dominated the United States. At that time, many European modernists immigrated to the United States, which also brought fresh ideas. Louis was deeply influenced, especially the famous poster designer Cassandra and modernist artistic director Rand. Louis makes advertisements more humanized, fresher and closer to consumers. Whether it's the senator case of Bobby Kennedy in 1964, the stunning cover of Gentleman Magazine in 1969 (boxer Sonny liston was designed as the first black Santa Claus, and andy warhol drowned in a huge Campbell soup can), or 1982, he can always grasp the spirit of the times sensitively with his own genius.
Writer Heller: "His creativity is always unexpected and full of rebellion, but it can impress consumers' psychology more. "
Two of the famous vodka print advertisements are like this: a bottle of vodka says to a red tomato, "Hey, you hot red tomato, if we add it together, it can become a bloody Mary." I am different from other boys! " The tomato said, "I like you, Wolf Schmidt. You really have good taste. " A flat vodka bottle said to the orange, "honey, I admire you very much." I have good taste. I want to discover your inner beauty. Give me a kiss. " The orange replied, "Who was that slut I saw with you last week?" Then there are lemons, onions, olives and so on. All these are sexual puns made by Wolff Schmidt. This kind of dialogue combines words and vision well, and embodies two principles advocated by modernism: "Form obeys function" and "Less is more". Louis believes that all the factors in advertising are to express creativity more clearly. Information should be simplified and communication should be strong and clear.
Louis also designed a series of advertisements for Coldene, an anti-cold medicine for children. It was a complete break with tradition. Among them, there is a picture without products, packaging and logo, only a dark bedroom with parents' conversation written in white. The wife said, "The child is coughing." The husband said, "get up and feed him some coke."
This is a brand-new sales attempt, focusing on the purity and unity of the picture. It is subtle and effective to mention the name of the product in the dialogue. Like vodka advertisements, it became a masterpiece of "minimalism" a few years later.
The most arrogant and diligent genius
The reason for positioning is simple, just like unzipping before going to the toilet. "
1967, Braniff found Louis. Prior to this, although airlines played various tricks, painted the fuselage in a unique color, which is commonly known as "leather chairs", and opened up new routes, they could never find an accurate positioning. After accepting the case, Louis arranged for several celebrities to talk on the plane, pop artists talked with boxers about art, baseball players talked with artists about baseball, and drama actors played cards with film geniuses. Finally, they all said the same slogan: "If you get it, you must brag." If you have it, show it off.
This slogan has even been integrated into popular culture and become a daily language. Humor and charming planning helped Braun Yves position himself as an international and unique airline. Louis thinks positioning is as simple as unzipping before going to the bathroom. "My job is to make 654.38+0 million look like 654.38+0 million." This also makes him regarded as the most arrogant advertiser.
However, Louis has reason to make such wild remarks. He only sleeps for three or four hours every day. "If you don't feel exhausted at the end of the day, then your day is wasted."
The era of establishing basic advertising rules like Hopkins and Ogilvy is over. "It was the maverick Louis who promoted the artistic director from the position of designer to the incubator of creativity." Advertising Times magazine named Louis as one of the news figures in the advertising industry 10. 1978 entered the art direction hall of fame and the creation hall of fame, becoming the youngest one. 1997, Louis was awarded the Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement by AIGA. Since 1920, this award has been given exclusively to individuals who have had a profound influence on American art and design.
But none of these achievements can be compared with the phone call made by Louis' old friend paul rand several years ago: "Smelly old man, did you read Time magazine this morning? Your name is actually made into the answer to a crossword puzzle. " Every time I mentioned it, Louis laughed from ear to ear.