This month’s Vice magazine has a tremendous interview with the deliciously outspoken George Lois, who dates back to the early days of DDB, around the time Bill Bernbach had the epiphany of forming a creative team that consisted of a writer and designer. This standard served the ad industry well throughout the 60s and well beyond.
Lois:
Now it’s all about eight people sitting in a room, picking things together. What the fuck? Are you crazy? People think the way to be a successful executive is to get the right people around them and listen to their thinking and pick the best of their thinking. I don’t get it…everything that’s great in this world gets done by one or two people together.
You need a team for production, but a team for creating ideas? Get the fuck outta here! That’s impossible. It really is. People say, “Well, if you get together, if there are 20 people…” I say the more talented the 20 people, the more trouble you’re in. If there’s one talent in the 20 and the guy has conviction, he can beat the shit out of the other guys. But if the entire group is talented then you’re in trouble. It’s impossible!